NaNoWriMo 2013: Mahoutalia
by StellatheAlchemist
Summary: Feliciano Vargas is hardly a hero. He's clumsy, stupid, and terrified of everything. However, when a mysterious group from another dimension threatens this world, he and his friends find themselves... Magical girls? Having to juggle high school with their new powers, as well as discovering themselves and their sexualities, will they survive? ((T for uncensored swearing, etc.))
1. Like poof!

**((Happy NaNoWriMo/Halloween, everyone! Here's the first chapter of a story I've been planning for a long time now. I'm quite excited for this, and I hope everyone enjoys it. It was originally intended to be a crackish story making fun of magical girl anime, but as I thought more about it, it gradually became pretty serious. It'll still have a lot of general magical girl trope mockery, as evidenced by this chapter. I wrote this first chapter in the course of about 3 hours, and I'm pulling an all-nighter, so don't be surprised if I update again. I wasn't planning on going all night originally, but I figured since it was already 1 AM and the Hetalia Halloween event starts at 6, I might as well make some use of the 5 hours I would normally spend trying to fall asleep.  
Since this is for NaNoWriMo, after all, it's all unedited. I apologize for any cringe-worthy moments, and I'll probably edit it after November. Probably. Maybe.))**

Feliciano Vargas lay sprawled out in bed, his auburn hair spilling onto the pillow. He had been in the midst of a rather pleasant dream when his phone buzzed, indicating a text alert. However, Feliciano was a heavy sleeper, so he ignored it.

Then it buzzed again.

And again.

And again.

Sighing, Feliciano sat up and rubbed his eyes sleepily. He clumsily unlocked his phone and read his texts.

_7:13, Ludwig_

_Where are you? It's past 7:00. Get up._

_7:19, Ludwig_

_Wake up. You're going to make us both late._

_7:26, Ludwig_

_If you aren't up by 7:30 I'm going to leave without you._

_7:34, Ludwig_

_FELICIANO I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DON'T WAKE UP RIGHT NOW I WILL COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND WAKE YOU UP MYSELF AND YOU WILL NOT ENJOY IT._

Glancing at his alarm clock, Feliciano realized that it was almost 7:45, well past the time he was usually supposed to meet his best friend, Ludwig, at the corner so they could walk to school. Actually, at this rate, it was past time for school to start anyway.

"Oh no! I'm going to be late! Ludwig's gonna be so mad!" Feliciano exclaimed, throwing the covers off and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He promptly fell onto the floor, with his phone following shortly behind.

Whimpering slightly, Feliciano pushed himself to his feet and stumbled over to the dresser, pulling out some random clothes and throwing them on. He then ran to the kitchen, shoved some bread in the toaster, and ran to the bathroom. After sloppily brushing his teeth, or at least making some sort of effort to, he ran back to the kitchen and grabbed his bag, slinging it over one shoulder. He caught the toast as it popped out and shoved it in his mouth, running clumsily out the door in a panic without even bothering to lock it.

Feliciano ran down the street, quickly chewing the unbuttered toast and struggling to get his bag closed. He barely avoided getting hit by a car, having not bothered to cross the street. As he ran down the sidewalk, he didn't even notice where he was going until he found himself colliding with an unexpected obstacle. Feliciano fell over backwards, landing on his butt and spilling his books everywhere.

"Ah! I-I'm sorry, I didn't see you there, please don't kill me!" Feliciano exclaimed, scrambling to collect his books.

"No, don't worry about it," said an accented voice. Feliciano looked up to see a handsome young man with messy blonde hair and bushy eyebrows meet his eyes, collecting Feliciano's books and offering him an apologetic smile.

"Oh, um, thank you," Feliciano replied, standing up. "I'm Feli-" he began, but when he looked up, the man was gone. Feliciano blinked confusedly.

"That was strange… I could have sworn he was here just a second ago," he mumbled to himself, frowning. He thought about the mysterious stranger for a moment, before the familiar buzzing of his phone brought him out of his trance.

"Ah, that's right! I have to go before Ludwig murders me!" Feliciano exclaimed, beginning to run again.

* * *

Ludwig sat in class, trying to pay attention to what the teacher was saying. He was in a bad mood, and there was one thing he couldn't get off his mind: Once again, Feliciano was late. His idiotic best friend whom he almost always walked to school with had apparently forgotten to wake up that morning, and still hadn't shown up. Now, if he was 5 or even 10 minutes late, that would be one thing; But it had been almost 45 minutes, and if there was one thing Ludwig hated, it was extreme lateness.

Just as he was beginning to consider ditching class in order to go strangle his friend, the door was thrown open.

"Here I am! Sorry I'm late, everyone!" Feliciano exclaimed, standing in the doorway trying to catch his breath. His hair was a mess, his shirt was on backwards, his face was covered in what appeared to be toast crumbs, his hands were scraped up, and his bag was falling off his arm.

The teacher, who was rather used to Feliciano's strange behavior, merely sighed. "Just go sit down, Vargas."

"I'm sorry," Feliciano repeated, hurrying to his seat. He waved to his friends Ludwig and Kiku. Kiku frowned slightly, concerned about his friend's appearance, while Ludwig gave him a we'll-discuss-this-later look that clearly meant he was going to kill Feliciano.

"Dude, what the heck? You're like, an hour late," came the intelligent observation of Alfred F. Jones, the class's resident loud, obnoxious moron. He was soon elbowed by his twin brother Matthew, who shushed him.

"No talking in class, Alfred," the teacher said, confirming Matthew's warning. Alfred rolled his eyes and pouted slightly, leaning back in his seat and putting his feet up on the desk.

From that point on, the day went by quickly. Class was eventually dismissed for lunch, and Feliciano joined Ludwig and Kiku at their usual table. Feliciano was cheerful as usual, but Ludwig was not, and decided to skip right to the point.

"You were late," he said plainly, glaring at Feliciano. Feliciano shrunk back slightly.

"I forgot to get up," he explained, smiling sheepishly.

"I texted you FOUR TIMES," Ludwig pointed out, looming intimidatingly over the small Italian. Feliciano whimpered and hid behind Kiku slightly.

"L-Ludwig-san, please do not be so hard on Feli-kun. I am sure he had a good reason," Kiku said awkwardly, attempting to diffuse the tension. He then turned to Feliciano. "Are you alright? You appeared rather distressed this morning," he observed, concerned.

"Ah, yeah," Feliciano replied, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "See, I had to run really fast to get to school on time or else I would be really late and then I'd get in trouble, but then I crashed into this guy in the middle of the sidewalk, and then I fell and spilled alllllll my books so I had to pick them up, and then I looked up and the person was GONE!" Feliciano explained excitedly, barely pausing for breath.

Ludwig rolled his eyes. "Don't be ridiculous. He probably just left before you noticed."

"No, really!" Feliciano insisted. "I saw him, and then I looked down, and when I looked up he had disappeared! Like poof!"

"Did it really go poof?" Kiku inquired curiously. Ludwig facepalmed.

"Well no, but if he really did disappear, I bet it would be like poof," Feliciano mused.

"What's this about stuff going poof? Do you guys need a hero to find your stuff for you?" Alfred asked, hopping onto the table and sitting on top of it (Much to Ludwig's annoyance).

"Feliciano-kun claims to have seen a man disappear," Kiku replied, nodding politely to Alfred.

"Woah, dude! That's weird!" Alfred exclaimed.

"I wonder if it was a ghost," Matthew added quietly, appearing mysteriously behind his brother, although nobody seemed to notice this.

"Don't be ridiculous," Ludwig argued. "Things such as ghosts don't exist."

"Well then where'd that guy go?" Feliciano asked.

"I told you, he probably just left while you weren't looking," Ludwig replied.

"No way! He couldn't have left that quickly!"

"I'm telling you, it's gotta be a ghost," Alfred insisted.

"QUIET DOWN ARU!" Kiku's cousin Yao, a senior, shouted from across the room.

"Ah, sorry about that," Matthew replied, smiling apologetically.

"I believe it is time to get back to class," Kiku pointed out.

"Ja, I think you're right," Ludwig agreed. "After all, we wouldn't want to be LATE," he added, giving Feliciano a look.

"I already said I'm sorry!" Feliciano shouted, putting his hands up in surrender.

Ludwig sighed. "Whatever. Let's just get to class."

"I'll race ya!" Alfred announced, dashing off down the hallway.

"Alfred, no!" Matthew protested, but it was too late. He was gone. Matthew sighed in exasperation. "I really wish he would stop doing that…"

* * *

As usual, Feliciano had gone over to Ludwig's house after school, which wasn't really a big deal since they happened to live next door to each other.

"Ludwiggggg, this homework is so boringgggg," Feliciano whined, rolling over and placing his head in his friend's lap, directly on top of his textbook. Ludwig growled slightly and attempted to push him away.

"We have to finish it, this is due Wednesday," he pointed out, blushing ever-so-slightly.

"Yeah, but it's so boring… Can't we at least take a break?" Feliciano complained.

"No."

"Pleeeeease?" Feliciano asked, giving Ludwig a hopeful puppy face. Ludwig sighed; There was simply no way he could say no to that face.

"Fine, we can take a break," he said reluctantly, closing his textbook.

"Yay!" Feliciano exclaimed happily, jumping up and reaching for the TV remote. He switched the TV on and flipped through the channels, stopping at what appeared to be an episode of a magical girl anime.

"Wow, so cool!" he announced, watching with interest. "Wouldn't it be cool if we could be like her, Ludwig? Wouldn't it?"

"Not really," Ludwig replied. "That's a huge responsibility. She could easily be killed at any moment, and god knows how she manages to get any sleep. Not to mention that skirt is way too short," Ludwig observed.

"You're no fun," Feliciano said, pouting. Ludwig simply shrugged.

"I just think these shows are a bit unrealistic, that's all," he explained.

"Yo! The Awesome Me is home!" Ludwig's brother Gilbert shouted, walking into the living room.

"Welcome back," Ludwig replied.

"Ve! Hi Gilbert!" Feliciano said, waving.

"Hey Feli! I heard about your little adventure this morning," Gilbert replied, grinning amusedly.

"What? How'd you know about that?" Feliciano asked.

"Well, Yao overheard you guys talking about it, and he told that guy Ivan, who told Lovino, who bitched about it to Antonio, who told me," Gilbert explained.

Ludwig rolled his eyes. "You and your gossip…"

Choosing to ignore his little brother's comment, Gilbert flopped down on the couch next to him.

"Whatcha watchin'?" he asked curiously.

"Some ridiculously girly anime," Ludwig replied, shrugging. "I'm not really watching it, but Feliciano seems to like it."

"It's really cool! The girl in the show is amazing!" Feliciano said excitedly.

"Woah, she kinda looks like Basch," Gilbert observed. "Except, you know, less pissy and with more boobs."

Ludwig facepalmed.

A few minutes later, there came a loud, angry knock at the door.

"West, someone's knocking," Gilbert stated, glued to the TV.

"I know."

"So go get it," Gilbert told him. Ludwig scowled at his lazy brother and went to answer the door.

Standing angrily by the front door was a boy who looked similar to Feliciano, with redder hair and a permanent aura of asshole-ness.

"There you are, potato bastard," he mumbled, glaring at Ludwig. "Where the hell is my brother? It's almost dinner time."

"Ja, I'll go get him," Ludwig said, sighing. Why couldn't Feliciano's brother be more like him?

"Feli, Lovino's here," Ludwig announced, turning the TV off.

"Hey! I was watching that!" Gilbert shouted.

"Aww, I wanted to find out what happens," Feliciano mumbled, frowning sadly.

"I'm sure it's on the internet somewhere if you're really that concerned," Ludwig pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess so. Bye Ludwig!" Feliciano said, giving his friend a goodbye hug.

"See you tomorrow," Ludwig replied.

"Bye," Gilbert added, waving while still not looking away from the TV.

Feliciano bounced down the hall to the doorway, where he found his brother looking pissed as usual.

"Ve, sorry I took so long," Feliciano said casually. "There was a really cool anime on TV! You should have seen it!"

"Whatever, I don't want to hear your crappy excuses," Lovino snapped. "Let's just go home. I'm fucking starving."

* * *

That night as Feliciano lay in bed, his thoughts drifted to the anime he had been watching earlier. The heroine's graceful moves, her powerful attacks, her cute outfit, the way she always stood up for what was right… It seemed so cool to him. A little scary, perhaps, yet wonderful. At the same time, there was another thing his thoughts often returned to: The mysterious stranger from that morning. Who was he? Where did he come from? Where did he go? Try as he might to ignore these questions, there was a distinct nagging in the back of his mind, a part of him that just refused to forget that strange incident.

Eventually, however, Feliciano was able to drift off into a deep, peaceful sleep.

…For a while.

At approximately 2 AM, Feliciano was awoken by a bright light and the smell of burnt food. He sleepily sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"Lovino? Is that you?" he mumbled tiredly, glancing around the room.

"Oh, shit," came the reply. Though it was certainly a phrase worthy of his brother, the voice was definitely not him. Feliciano blinked the sleep out of his eyes and looked to see a man standing in front of his bed, with messy blonde hair, deep green eyes, large eyebrows, feathery white wings, and what appeared to be a halo.

"Ve… Are you an angel?" Feliciano asked, a sense of child-like wonder in his voice.

"What? No, I am not!" the mysterious figure snapped.

"But you have angel wings," Feliciano pointed out, "And a halo."

"Look, Guardians were around long before- Oh, screw it. Listen, you're Italian, right?" the not-angel demanded.

"Um, yeah, but why-"

Before Feliciano could finish, the strange man placed his hand on Feliciano's forehead, closing his eyes. He inhaled deeply, and his halo began to glow brighter. Mysterious wind and colorful uplighting came out of nowhere, and Feliciano felt a strange tingling sensation, as if something inside him was changing somehow.

Slowly the light began to disappear, the wind died down, and the not-angel released his breath, letting his hand fall to his side.

"What was that?" Feliciano whispered, slightly stunned.

"I can't explain now," the not-angel said hastily. "Go back to sleep. I was never here, alright?"

"But-"

"I said go to sleep," the not-angel repeated, smacking Feliciano on the head with a star-shaped wand.

"Ok, buona notte," Feliciano mumbled, falling over and instantly falling asleep.

Checking once to make sure his spell had worked, the not-angel was satisfied and climbed out the window.

"Ow, ow! You're stepping on my hand!" someone shrieked next to him.

"Shut up, do you want to wake up the whole damn neighborhood?" the not-angel whispered sharply, moving his foot.

"The least you could do is say sorry," the other person insisted, crossing his arms haughtily. It was a fairly young man, with wavy blonde hair and stubble. "Anyway, are you done?"

"With him, anyway," the not-angel replied.

"Good, I'm hungry," the other man announced.

"Why the hell should I care?"

"Because we're friends and friends care about each other," the blonde said matter-of-factly.

"We are not friends," the not-angel insisted.

"Whatever you say… Anyway, can't we go to KFC or something?"

"Don't be ridiculous. We've still got plenty of work to do and I won't be able to change out of this form for another 10 hours, at least," the not-angel explained.

"So then I'll go get the food, you wait, and we can eat in the car," the other man suggested.

"No."

"Please?"

"I said no."

"But I'm hungry. Aren't you hungry? Come on, you have to be hungry after such a huge spell!"

"No means no!"

"Fine…" the man sighed reluctantly. "On to the next target, then?"

"Geez, you make it sound like we're robbing people," the not-angel mumbled.

"Well technically we ARE breaking and entering," the other man pointed out.

"Yes, but it's for a good cause! Now let's go," the not-angel insisted.

"Alright then."


	2. It's Him Again

**((Happy day two, everyone! Here's the next chapter. It's a little boring, but I'm not entirely sure how to kick things off… orz Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys it. And for those of you who've been keeping up with Hetaween: Isn't Hong Kong's costume the greatest? xD  
By the way, the teacher isn't anyone in particular, he's basically just there to fill in the role of teacher. He was pretty inspired by Kuroi-sensei from Lucky Star, though, so I hope he ends up being a cool character. Also, random side note, I fixed the missing line breaks in chapter 1.))**

"Buon giorno, Ludwig!" Feliciano called, waving to his tall friend. "Look, I got up on time today! Aren't you proud of me?"

"…Well, yes, but not getting up half an hour late isn't really something worth being proud of," Ludwig said awkwardly.

"Yeah, I guess that's true… Anyway, you'll never believe what happened to me last night!" Feliciano announced excitedly.

"You finally learned to tie your shoes?" Ludwig asked hopefully

"No," Feliciano admitted, staring at his feet sadly as he walked. "But it was really weird!"

"Alright then, what was it?" Ludwig asked, deciding he might as well humor the clearly excited teen.

"I saw an angel!" Feliciano replied, grinning widely.

"…What."

"Yeah! He had big pretty angel wings and a halo, and also really big eyebrows. I don't know what was up with the eyebrows. Also, he said he wasn't an angel, and he was a bit of a pottymouth." Feliciano frowned thoughtfully. "Anyway, he did this weird thing where he put his hand on my face, and then the room got all glowey and windy and I felt funny. Then I think I fell asleep 'cuz that's all I remember," he finished.

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming?" Ludwig asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh-huh! …Well, mostly, anyway."

Ludwig sighed and shook his head in dismay. "You need to stop watching so much TV before bed."

"It was real, I swear!" Feliciano insisted. "You have to believe me!"

"Alright, alright, I believe you," Ludwig said hastily.

"Really?"

"No."

"Ludwig!"

"Look, I'm sorry, but you can't expect me to believe something like that," Ludwig explained, giving his friend a sympathetic look.

"But it's true…" Feliciano insisted half-heartedly. "I bet Kiku will believe me!"

"Maybe," Ludwig said, although he didn't think he would. He just didn't want to further upset Feliciano.

Finally, the two arrived at their school. World Academy W was a large, fancy , western-style high school located in Tokyo. It was a private school, and accepted specially chosen members from around the world. Similarly, much of the staff also hailed from various different areas.

Heading to their classroom, Feliciano and Ludwig found Alfred sitting on his desk, apparently trying to eat as many M&Ms at once as possible. Several students were surrounding him chanting "Go! Go! Go!", including Kiku, Juan, Sadiq, Tino, and Feliks. Meanwhile, Matthew was standing off to the side looking exhasperated.

"Alfred, what the hell?" Ludwig said, frowning confusedly at the American's ridiculous behavior.

"Ah-" Alfred began, but stopped talking when candy began to fall out of his mouth.

"He's trying to see how many M&Ms he can eat at once," Matthew explained, sighing.

"Hey Kiku, guess what happened to me last night!" Feliciano announced, bouncing excitedly.

"Did you learn to tie your shoelaces?" Kiku guessed.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?!" Feliciano shouted, frustrated.

"Ah, I am sorry," Kiku replied. "Please, tell me what happened."

"I met an angel!" Feliciano said, grinning.

"…Um… Are you referring to the mythical beings, or a pretty girl?" Kiku asked hesitantly, not entirely sure.

"An angel like in stories, although a girl would have been nice," Feliciano replied. Ludwig rolled his eyes.

"I do not understand," Kiku said confusedly. "Aren't angels just myths?"

"Yeah, but I saw one! He was blonde with really big eyebrows, and he put his hand on my head and then everything was all glowey and windy and I felt funny and then I fell asleep!" Feliciano explained.

"And you are sure it was not a dream?" Kiku repeated, suspicious.

"There's no way it could have been!"

"Um… Alright then…" Kiku was still doubtful, considering this was the same person who insisted that his washing machine was ABSOLUTELY 100% HAUNTED. (To his credit, they never did find out what was up with that washing machine. It probably had a Rotom in it.)

"Alfred, get off the desk," the teacher commanded, walking to his desk, "And for the love of Bob, get those M&Ms out of your mouth before you choke to death."

Alfred nodded and slowly chewed the massive blob of chocolate, painfully choking it down. He was silent for a moment, and everyone stared for several seconds with bated breath.

"I'm ok!" he announced after a while, grinning and giving a thumbs-up. The entire room burst into cheers. Ludwig slammed his head into the desk in frustration.

"Alright class, settle down," the teacher said, doing his best to hide his own amusement. "Before we start, I have a few announcements to make."

Feliciano's hand shot up.

"No, Feliciano, it is not about pasta," the teacher said in a monotone voice. Feliciano sadly put his hand down.

"As I was saying, we have a new school guidance counselor," he continued. "His name is Arthur Kirkland, and he just moved here from London. I expect you all to give him a warm welcome, alright?"

The class mumbled their various forms of agreement, still disappointed about having their fun interrupted.

"Good. And remember, he's the guidance counselor; His job is to help you, so if any of you ever have any problems, feel free to talk to him," the teacher concluded.

Alfred raised his hand.

"Yes, Alfred?"

"Does he play Pokemon?" Alfred asked innocently.

"I don't know, but once again you have missed the point by several kilometers," the teacher replied, sighing. "Now, it's time for class."

* * *

Lunch period arrived as usual, and Feliciano and his friends sat at their regular table.

"Hey, who's that?" Alfred asked through a mouthful of hamburger, pointing to a strange person sitting in a corner. He looked too old to be a student, but he wasn't a teacher, at least not as far as anyone could tell.

"Oh, that must be the new guidance counselor," Kiku said.

"Maybe we should go say hello, eh? Make him feel welcome," Matthew suggested.

"Ooh, yeah! Let's go say hi!" Feliciano agreed. "Maybe he'll be our friend!"

"Hmm… I suppose it can't hurt to make a good impression," Ludwig said thoughtfully.

"Then let's go!" Alfred decided, running over to the strange new person.

"Hey, wait for us," Matthew reminded him, walking quietly after him.

"Yo! You're like, the new dudeperson or whatever, right? I'm Alfred F. Jones, star student of World Academy W and resident hero!" Alfred announced, grinning widely. The man raised an eyebrow, which was unusually large.

Ludwig gently smacked Alfred on the back of the head. "Don't be such an idiot."

"Konnichiwa," Kiku said, bowing. "My name is Honda Kiku. It is nice to meet you. You are the new guidance counselor, yes?"

"That's right," the man replied, smiling politely. "My name is Arthur Kirkland. You can just call me Arthur if you like."

"My name's Matthew Jones," Matthew said, waving. "I'm sorry about my brother, he gets overexcited sometimes."

"I'm Feliciano Vargas!" Feliciano added, waving enthusiastically.

"My name is Ludwig Beilschmidt," Ludwig finished, nodding politely. "Nice to meet you."

"Well it's lovely to meet you all," Arthur replied, smiling. "What class are you all from?"

"We're from Mr. Johnson's class," Ludwig told him.

"I see… Well, you all seem like lovely people," Arthur decided. "I hope we can be friends."

"Yes, I hope we will get along well in the future," Kiku agreed.

"Feli, is something wrong?" Ludwig asked concernedly, noticing the strange look on his friend's face.

"…I… I think I know him," Feliciano said slowly, frowning confusedly.

"Well I do live near here," Arthur explained. "It's possible that you've seen me around somewhere. Probably the convenience store or something."

"O-oh, I guess so," Feliciano replied, now feeling embarrassed.

"You kids should probably get back to lunch," Arthur pointed out.

"Ah, I almost forgot about that," Matthew agreed. "We'd better go. Nice meeting you!"

With that, the group headed back to the table. They were just starting to sit down when Feliciano suddenly stopped dead.

"Are you alright, Feli-kun?" Kiku asked , glancing worriedly at the boy.

"I remember where I know him from!" Feliciano announced. He turned around and ran back, much to the surprise of his friends.

"You're the angel from last night!" Feliciano accused, pointing dramatically at Arthur.

"Sorry, lad, I don't have a clue what you're talking about," Arthur replied, smiling apologetically, although Feliciano could have sworn he saw his face twitch.

"But it was you! I know it was!" Feliciano insisted, flailing his arms a little before Ludwig grabbed him by the back of his shirt and started dragging him back to their table.

"Sorry about that," Ludwig told Arthur, sighing. "Please ignore anything stupid he says."

"Ludwig! Let me go!" Feliciano shouted.

"No," Ludwig replied plainly. He dumped Feliciano in his seat rather unceremoniously. "Come on, you're making a scene. You really need to stop watching so much anime before bed."

"Why won't anyone believe me?!" Feliciano whined, tears shining in his eyes.

"Calm down, Feliciano-kun. I am sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this," Kiku said, quite worried about his Italian friend.

"But nobody believes me! I saw an angel last night, I really did!" Feliciano insisted.

"I believe you," Matthew said quietly.

"Really?" Feliciano asked, hopeful.

"Yes," Matthew replied, nodding. "I know it sounds strange, but if you say so, I'll believe it," he explained, smiling.

"Wow, thanks," Feliciano said, grateful for the support.

"Hey, are you sure it was an angel and not an alien?" Alfred asked.

"Um, I think so, yeah," Feliciano replied, frowning thoughtfully.

"Even aliens makes more sense than angels," Ludwig mumbled. Just then the bell rang.

"Ah! We will be late for class!" Kiku exclaimed, quickly cleaning up his lunch and starting to head to the classroom.

"I'll race ya!"

"ALFRED!"

* * *

Feliciano was walking home from Ludwig's house, humming quietly to himself. He paused for a moment, thinking he heard something. After deciding it was nothing, he resumed humming and continued walking.

Then he heard it again.

"Hey, you! Over here!" hissed a voice, seeming to come from the alley across the street.

"But Ludwig says I shouldn't talk to mysterious strangers in back alleys," Feliciano shouted back. He thought he heard giggling, then a "Shut it, frog", and a slapping noise. There was a short pause for a moment, and Feliciano began to suspect the person had gone, when they spoke again.

"Um, it's fine, I'm not going to hurt you or anything. Just come here, alright?"

"Well, if you say so," Feliciano replied, skipping across the street. He stopped in the alley. There he found a familiar face: Arthur. Next to him was a man Feliciano didn't know, with silky blonde hair and a stubbly beard.

"Ah! It's you again!" Feliciano exclaimed.

"Not so loud!" Arthur whispered. He sighed. "Yes, it's me. And this is my partner, Francis."

"Oh, so we're partners now?" the other man said, smirking.

"That is NOT what I meant and you know it," Arthur snapped. Francis just laughed.

"Ve, what are you talking about?" Feliciano asked innocently.

"Nothing," Arthur replied hastily. "Anyway, I wanted to apologize for earlier. I know it must have been hard with none of your friends believing you, but it's not the sort of thing that can be discussed in public," he explained. "And by the way, I'm NOT an angel."

"Yes you are," Francis argued.

"Don't make me curse you," Arthur mumbled, glaring at him.

"So if you're not an angel, what are you?" Feliciano asked.

"I'm a guardian," Arthur replied, smiling proudly. Feliciano was silent.

"…I don't think he knows what that means," Francis pointed out. Arthur sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Guardians are people who have been around for thousands of years, charged with protecting the Earth," he explained. "We have… powers most people don't."

"And you use them to stalk high school students while they're sleeping?" Feliciano asked, confused. Francis snickered.

"Wha- No, I do not!" Arthur insisted, blushing bright red. "Look, I know it seems strange, but I had a good reason for being there last night!"

"Ve? What was it?"

"Whenever humanity is in danger, guardians can choose special individuals from certain countries and grant them some powers in order to help protect it," Arthur explained. "Nobody's had to do that since the last world war, but there's been some strange activity lately, and I fear we're on the brink of some sort of attack…"

"Oh… I don't know if I can help with that," Feliciano said honestly.

"Unfortunately, you're going to have to," Arthur admitted. "Don't worry, though; You won't be alone."

"Really? Who else is there?" Feliciano asked, excited to meet new people as usual.

"It's not entirely decided yet," Francis replied.

"Look, I can't explain everything here, so meet me after school tomorrow, alright?" Arthur told Feliciano. "And most importantly, don't tell ANYONE."

"I won't!" Feliciano replied, nodding seriously.

"Good," Arthur said, seemingly satisfied. "Now we've got to get going, so I'll see you tomorrow."

"Ok! Bye-bye!" Feliciano said, waving. There was a bright flash of light, and Arthur and Francis disappeared.

Feliciano lingered for a moment, thinking about everything he had just been told, and then ran back to Ludwig's house.

"LUDWIG, LUDWIG, GUESS WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO ME!"


	3. Breaking and Entering

**((Chapter three is finally here! Sorry for the delay; I had a long sleepover a few days ago, and yesterday I just didn't feel like writing. orz It's also pretty short. I know things have been kind of boring for the past three chapters but hopefully within a chapter or two it'll get more exciting! Also, for the record, I made up Kiku's P name. I wanted the title to sound like a Manbo-P or Hobonichi-P song. I'm almost tempted to write it myself. xD And on the subject of Vocaloid, a quick nod to Owata-P, one of my favorite producers. This story was more than a little influenced by Magical Kitty Len Len.))**

Alfred lay on his bed, playing some game on his PSP while rock music played loudly in the background. Suddenly he saw a bright light, causing him to jump.

"Dude, what the hell?! Mattie! You made me lose the race!" he shouted.

"Did you say something?" Matthew called innocently from the kitchen. Alfred ran over there.

"Yeah! What was the deal with that light? I was about to get first!"

"What light?" Matthew asked, oblivious.

"Huh? You mean that wasn't you?" Alfred said hesitantly, suspicious.

"No, I don't know what you're talking about, sorry," Matthew replied. Alfred's eyes went wide.

"Oh, hell… Mattie, what if we've got a ghost?" he whispered, quite serious for once.

"The house isn't that old, eh?" Matthew pointed out. "I'm sure there's nothing to worry about."

Just then they heard a high-pitched shriek coming from Alfred's room. Alfred screamed and jumped behind the counter.

"IT'S THE GHOST! SHIT! IT'S GOING TO KILL US ALL!" he cried, terrified.

"Al, calm down!" Matthew shouted. "It might have-" Suddenly he stopped, listening carefully.

"Mattie?! Are you ok?!" Alfred demanded.

"Listen… Do you hear that?" Matthew whispered. Frowning, Alfred stopped and listened for a moment. Sure enough, he heard shouting down the hall.

"…kind of horrible person just leaves Legos lying around like that?! God, my beautiful foot! Am I bleeding?!"

"Shut the fuck up! You're fine, now shut up before he hears us!"

"But my foot! My beautiful, beautiful foot! The paaaaain!"

"It's just some Legos, you baby! Man up, would you?!"

"Hey! Who are you and what are you doing in my house?!" Alfred demanded, having reached his bedroom. The two men immediately froze.

"Um… LOOK! A DISTRACTION!" one of them shouted, pointing behind Alfred.

"WHERE?!"

As Alfred turned to look, the man delivered a well-placed blow to the back of his head, instantly knocking him out.

"Bloody hell, Francis, you almost got us caught," Arthur mumbled, glaring at the man beside him.

"Oh, just hurry up and do the spell before he wakes up," Francis replied. Arthur rolled his eyes and mumbled something under his breath.

He reluctantly closed his eyes and took a deep breath, placing one hand on the unconscious American's forehead. The room suddenly became windy and filled with light. After a moment, the wind and light faded, and Arthur let out his breath and removed his hand from Alfred's head.

"Now then, let's get out of here before-"

"D-don't move!" shouted a shy voice. Arthur looked up to find a nervous-looking boy with wispy blonde hair pointing a gun at them, his hands shaking.

"I thought you said he lived alone!" Francis shouted, giving Arthur a panicked glance.

"I thought he did!" Arthur insisted.

"Then who the hell is this kid?!"

"M-m-my name is M-Matthew Jones," the boy stammered, giving them a determined yet scared look. "I l-live here too, and um… P-please don't knock out m-my brother! Please leave!"

"Well you're awfully polite about pointing a gun at us," Francis commented.

"That doesn't mean I w-won't use it!" Matthew insisted.

"Relax, we're not here to hurt you," Arthur said, slowly putting his hands up.

"I find that hard to believe considering you just k-knocked out Alfred!"

"He does have a point, you know," Francis pointed out.

"Shut it, frog, you're not helping!" Arthur snapped. He sighed and turned to Matthew. "Look, I know it seems strange, but I can explain-"

"Wait a minute, Arthur, do we have a Canada yet?" Francis interrupted.

"No, but I really don't think that matters right now," Arthur replied.

"Well then do the thing!"

"But he's American!"

"So?! It's the same thing, isn't it? I mean, Canada is in North America!"

"You dumbass, that doesn't make it the same country!"

"H-hey! I can hear you, you know!" Matthew pointed out.

"See? We don't have a choice," Francis insisted. Arthur sighed.

"Fine, but if this goes wrong, I'm blaming you." Before Matthew had a chance to react, Arthur repeated the same spell he had used on Alfred.

"…Wh… wha… eh?!" Matthew stammered, stunned.

"Look, I'll explain tomorrow, alright? We have to run," Arthur said. "Your brother will be fine, so don't worry. And, uh… Tell him to clean up those Legos before someone kills themselves on them," he added awkwardly.

Matthew said nothing, simply standing there in shock. Taking that as a good sign (or not, but it was something), he waved his ridiculously stupid-looking wand and the two of them disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

Kiku lay on his futon, sleeping soundly. His mouth was open slightly in a gentle smile, his inky black hair blowing slightly in the draft.

"Alright, now don't do anything stupid this time," Arthur whispered, carefully tiptoeing into the room.

"Of course," Francis replied, winking. Arthur rolled his eyes and continued walking, stopping and kneeling down by the sleeping boy. Without noticing it, the tip of his wing brushed his foot, tickling the boy in his sleep.

"Pochi-chan, yamete," Kiku mumbled, rolling over.

Arthur froze, exchanging oh-shit looks with Francis. The two of them were silent for a moment, not even daring to breathe for fear of waking him up. After a while, when they were satisfied that he was indeed asleep, they resumed their task. Arthur placed his hand on Kiku's forehead, performing the same spell he had done on the other three.

Just when they thought they could get away without conflict, Kiku's eyes snapped open, woken up by the bright light. He immediately reached for the knife under his pillow.

"Who are you, and why have you invaded my home?!" he demanded, glaring and holding up the knife.

"C-calm down, we're not here to hurt you or rob you or anything," Arthur explained hastily. Kiku's eyes widened as he looked at him.

"You are… the angel Feliciano-kun saw," Kiku said quietly, shocked.

"I am NOT a bloody angel," Arthur insisted, resisting the urge to strangle the Japanese boy. Francis simply laughed.

"But… You ARE the new counselor, aren't you?" Kiku asked confusedly.

"Uh, well, that much is true at least," Arthur admitted. "But I can explain-"

"Please leave," Kiku interrupted, in a way that clearly meant "Get the hell out of my house or else".

"I think we'd better go," Francis agreed, not wanting to suffer any more injuries.

"Fine," Arthur replied. With a wave of his wand, the two of them disappeared.

Kiku sat there for a moment, stunned. After a while, he took out his phone and began writing.

_My School Counselor is a Criminal Angel from England_

_By Technorogy-P_

* * *

"Alright, this should be the last one," Arthur whispered. Francis nodded, and the two of them slowly opened to door to the room in front of them.

They were immediately met with a gun pointed directly at them.

"Don't move," Ludwig ordered with a glare, his grip on the gun unwavering.

"How the hell did all you kids manage to get guns with Japan's crazy gun laws?! And you're minors, for God's sake!" Arthur exclaimed.

"You know, I was wondering that," Francis agreed, frowning thoughtfully.

"I think you should be less concerned with how I got the gun and more with the fact that I'm pointing it at you," Ludwig pointed out.

"Uh, right," Arthur said awkwardly. He slowly put his hands up. Francis did the same.

"Now, both of you get out," Ludwig commanded, still pointing the gun at them.

"Of course," Arthur mumbled, turning to leave.

"Sorry for disturbing you," Francis said cheerfully, turning back and kicking Ludwig in the face. Taken by surprised, Ludwig fell over, dropping his gun.

"Not bad, frog," Arthur commented, quickly performing the spell. "Now let's get the hell out of here."

"You bastards! Don't think you can just get away with… er… Whatever you just did!" Ludwig insisted, but they were already gone. Swearing under his breath, he stood up. Since he assumed he would not be sleeping much that night, he went to make some coffee. Just as he began measuring the coffee, he heard frantic knocking on the front door.

"Ludwig-san! I am terribly sorry to bother you at this hour, but we need to talk!" Kiku called from outside. Ludwig sighed and went to get the door.

It was going to be a long night.


	4. Personally, I prefer Spider-Man

**((IT IS DONE! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up! But it is pretty long and sorta-explains a lot of stuff and introduces a few minor characters, as well as having some funny moments, so hopefully that'll be enough. It's pretty crappy since it is a first draft and all, but whatever. Things should start getting more interesting from this point on. I'm about halfway where I need to be at this point as far as word count goes… orz  
Geez, it seems like Feliciano and Ludwig act couple-y no matter what I do. I wanted this to start out with no pairings so everyone can enjoy it, and then very gradually transition into slight GerIta with maybe some Spamano, but noooo. Apparently they have other plans. WHY CAN'T YOU TWO JUST BEHAVE? .  
Oh yeah, and this chapter has a lot of… colorful language. You have been warned.))**

"God, my head hurts like a mofo," Alfred moaned, gulping down two Advil pills.

"Are you alright, Alfred-san?" Kiku asked, concerned.

"No," Alfred replied, leaning against his locker. "I feel like shit. I think I might be dying."

"He just has a headache," Matthew explained. "Al's a bit of a drama queen."

"I am not!" Alfred insisted.

"If I may ask, what happened?" Kiku asked, slightly worried about his American friend.

"Ok, so this is going to sound reeeeally crazy," Alfred began, "But last night I heard these voices and then I thought it was a ghost but there was this angel dude who looked exactly like the new counselor dude, you know minus the angel part, and also this weird French guy, and when I found them I think they knocked me out or something," he explained.

Kiku and Matthew exchanged glances, worried.

"I do not think you are the only one to experience such an incident. I had a similar experience last night," Kiku told him.

"Woah, really?!" Alfred exclaimed, surprised. Kiku nodded.

Meanwhile, Feliciano was observing Ludwig nervously. The blonde boy was sitting hunched over at the table, his hands balled into fists and his normally intimidating face frozen in a look of contained rage. He was giving off an aura of doom.

"Ve, Ludwig, are you ok?" Feliciano asked hesitantly. "You look kinda mad…"

"Oh, I'm fine," Ludwig said, his voice disturbingly calm. "I'm just going to murder someone later."

Feliciano's eyes went wide, very concerned about his friend, and also whoever it was he intended on strangling to death. He immediately hugged Ludwig.

"Please don't kill anyone," he said soothingly, hugging him close. Ludwig said nothing, but relaxed slightly, sighing.

"I think perhaps we should talk to Kirkland-sensei after school," Kiku suggested, unfazed by his friends' gay huggle-fest going on without him.

"Oh yes. Talk to him. Of course," Ludwig said slowly. The Jones twins began slowly backing away from him, not wanting to be in the line of fire when he snapped.

"But you're not gonna kill anyone, riiiight?" Feliciano said, smiling hopefully.

"...We'll see," Ludwig mumbled ominously.

"Hey Kiku, if you die, can I have your iPod?" Alfred asked excitedly, causing Matthew to facepalm.

"I, uh... ano... I will see what I can do," Kiku stammered fearfully, blushing in embarrasment.

"Great!" Alfred replied, grinning and giving a thumbs-up.

"I'm sorry about him," Matthew said apologetically, giving Kiku a sympathetic look.

"I understand," Kiku replied awkwardly.

Suddenly the group heard the distinctive click of a camera, followed by quiet giggling. Growling in annoyance, Ludwig stood up abruptly and stomped over to the source of the noise.

"Hand over the camera," he ordered, glaring at the older girl who was crouching behind a nearby trash can.

"Wh-what camera? I don't know what you're talking about, Ludwig dear," she lied, stealthily slipping her phone into her back pocket.

"Give it to me," Ludwig repeated, holding out his hand. "Now."

"I-"

Before she could finish, the bell rang loudly, indicating that it was time to get to class. Ludwig glared annoyedly, but said nothing, instead leaving to go to class. Feliciano and Kiku followed him, with Alfred once again dashing down the hall in an attempt to be the first one to class.

The brown-haired girl slowly stood up, sighing in relief.

"Saved by the bell... Never thought I'd say that in real life," she mumbled to herself, shaking her head in disbelief and smiling slightly. Brushing off her skirt, she took her phone out of her pocket and unlocked it, looking to see how the shot had come out. She grinned widely. Motivated by her fresh catch, she skipped off to class cheerfully, humming to herself.

* * *

Class had finally gotten out, and the five friends had met up in the library, determined to find out what exactly was going on and get some answers.

"Ok, I say we drug his coffee, then sneak into his office through the air vents and look at his files," Alfred whispered loudly.

"Um, no offense, Alfred-san, but I do not think that plan is very practical," Kiku pointed out.

"How about we give him a special potion that makes him only tell the truth, then question him?" Feliciano suggested.

"Those don't exist in real life," Ludwig pointed out.

"Why don't we just try asking nicely?" Matthew suggested quietly. Everyone paused and looked at him. He was quiet for a moment, until he realized that everyone was staring at him.

"Um, I mean, w-well, I just think you guys are being a little ridiculous," he explained. "We're high school students, not secret agents. He IS the school counselor. We could just, you know, ask."

"He's got a point," Ludwig agreed.

"Hai, I agree," Kiku added.

"Sounds good to me!" Feliciano announced.

"Ok, but if he lies, then can I knock him out?" Alfred asked. "You know, assuming Ludwig doesn't kill him first and all that."

"I'm not going to kill him," Ludwig insisted. "…Just injure him," he mumbled under his breath. Matthew gave him a look.

"So can we go now? I'm getting bored," Feliciano complained.

"Alright," Ludwig agreed, nodding. He stood up, and the others did the same. They all walked down the hall to the counselor's office, almost losing Feliciano along the way when he got distracted by a poster, and stopped outside the door.

"Ok, who's going in first?" Ludwig asked.

"I say I should go, because I'm the hero!" Alfred announced loudly. Matthew facepalmed.

"I don't care as long as it's not me!" Feliciano decided.

"Why don't I go first?" Kiku suggested. "I seem to be the most diplomatic of all of us…"

"Yes, but I'm the least prone to violent outbursts," Matthew pointed out.

"Why don't you let me go first?" Ludwig said, a sort of hysterical edge to his voice. "Yes… let me go first…"

"Ludwig, you promised not to kill anyone," Feliciano reminded him.

"Well maybe I was lying."

"Come on, guys! I'm going first!" Alfred announced, starting to open the door. Matthew jumped to stop him. Meanwhile, a murderous Ludwig tried to force his way in, while Kiku and Feliciano attempted to hold him back. This resulted in all five of them crashing through the door and landing in a huge pile on top of Matthew.

"Um… Can I help you?" Arthur asked, glancing up from his book and raising an eyebrow at the pile of high school students that had just crashed through his office door.

"I can't breathe," Matthew choked, fruitlessly attempting to get the others off him.

"Ludwig, dude! Get off my arm!"

"I can't until Kiku gets off of me!"

"I-I am sorry! My foot is stuck in the door!"

"Owowowow! Alfred you're stepping on my hair!"

"...Do I need to call an ambulance?" Arthur asked suspiciously.

"No," Ludwig replied firmly.

"Yes please," Matthew squeaked.

"Ah! I got my foot out!" Kiku announced, awkwardly attempting to get up. With some difficulty, he succeeded, with the others following suit. Ludwig immediately lunged at Arthur, grabbing him by his shirt collar and slamming him against the wall in that dramatic way you see in action movies a lot.

"Explain," he growled, "Now. And no excuses."

"Well I would, but now that you're threatening me, I don't think I will," Arthur said stubbornly, crossing his arms in a haughty manner.

"Damn you, I swear I will-"

"Ludwig! You promised not to kill him!" Feliciano exclaimed, clinging to Ludwig's arm.

"Forget that! I'm sick of being toyed with!"

"Ludwig-san, please!" Kiku shouted. "Feliciano-kun is right. Violence will get us nowhere. Let him speak."

"...Fine," Ludwig mumbled, reluctantly letting the British man go. Shooting Ludwig an annoyed look, he hmphed and adjusted his tie.

"Well now that you're actually giving me a chance to speak, I must say, I don't think this is something that can really be explained in one go," Arthur said. "Why don't you boys join me for tea?"

"No. Enough procrastinating," Ludwig insisted. "I want answers now."

"I think tea sounds nice," Matthew replied quietly.

"Yeah, I like tea!" Feliciano agreed.

"Ludwig-san," Kiku began, hesitantly putting a hand on his friend's shoulder, "I understand how you feel. But it is best to use diplomacy and politeness in a situation like this. I suggest we take Kirkland-sensei up on his offer," Kiku said, giving Ludwig a sympathetic yet meaningful look. Ludwig sighed.

"Yes, I suppose you're right... I'm sorry," Ludwig said quietly, staring at his feet awkwardly.

"Hey, don't worry about it, dude," Alfred said, smiling reassuringly. "We all have those moments where we totally flip out and try to murder someone... Well, except Feliciano," he added awkwardly. "I'm not sure he's even capable of slapping someone..."

"Well then, shall we go? My house is fairly close by," Arthur explained.

"Sounds good to me! Is there pasta at your place?" Feliciano asked cheerfully.

"Thank you for having us," Kiku said, bowing politely.

"I'm ready to go," Matthew added.

"Sure, whatevs," Alfred agreed.

"Hmph," Ludwig replied.

"Then it's decided," Arthur announced. "We can take my car."

"I call shotgun!" Alfred shouted. Matthew sighed.

* * *

The group arrived at Arthur's house, climbing out of the car. Ludwig was still acting rather awkward after his little episode earlier.

Arthur fumbled for his keys, quickly unlocking the door and opening it.

"Sorry for the mess," he said, heading inside. "Go ahead and make yourselves at home."

"Uncle Arthur, you're back!" a young boy exclaimed loudly, dropping a toy gun and running up to Arthur and hugging him. "You were late, so I thought maybe the zombies got you!"

"What zombies..?"

"Well since you weren't home I thought something must be keeping you, and what if it was something really bad, like a zombie apoca- Woah, who are all of they?!" he exclaimed, staring in wonder at the five high school students.

"Oh, these are just some students," Arthur explained casually. "Everyone, this is my nephew, Peter."

"Ve~ Hi Peter! I'm Feliciano!" Feliciano said, smiling widely.

"Nice to meet you, Peter-kun," Kiku added politely. "My name is Honda Kiku."

"I'm Matthew," Matthew said, waving slightly.

"My name is Ludwig."

"And I'm Alfred, the hero!" Alfred announced, grinning widely.

"Wow... So you guys go to World Academy W? That's so cool!" Peter exclaimed, jumping excitedly.

"It is?" Kiku asked, confused.

"Yeah! I've always wanted to go there!" Peter explained. "Hey, uncle Arthur, when can I go to World Academy W?" he asked. Arthur rolled his eyes.

"I've told you a thousand times before, you can go when you're older. You're not even in middle school yet."

"But I wanna go now!" Peter whined. "I'm smart! I can go!"

"First of all, it's not just a matter of being smart, and second of all, I don't have time for this conversation right now. We have important things to discuss. Why don't you go play with Paula or Raivis?" Arthur suggested.

"But I wanna talk about important things too..."

"No. Now go on, go play somewhere else," Arthur repeated, waving his hand dismissively.

"Whatever," Peter mumbled, pouting and stomping out the door. Arthur sighed in relief.

"Sorry about that. He can be quite a handful sometimes."

"I have never seen someone so excited to go to high school before," Kiku observed quietly, surprised.

"Yes, Peter's a little odd," Arthur explained. "Anyway, I suppose we'd better get started. I'll go put the tea on."

Arthur walked over to the kitchen, taking a teapot out of the cabinet and filling it with water. He put it on the stove to boil and turned to get some tea bags, only to find something else entirely. He jumped, startled.

"Bonjour, Arthur!" Francis greeted him, grinning amusedly and sitting on the counter.

"Geez, frog, what the hell was that for?!" Arthur shouted. "And how did you even get in my house?!"

"I stole your keys a few months ago," Francis explained casually. "I got bored so I decided to sneak in and surprise you. Peter was in on it, by the way."

"So THAT'S where those keys went! You ass, do you know how much it cost me to get those bloody keys copied?!"

"Well however much it was, I'm sure it's not nearly as much as it would cost to get those gigantic eyebrows plucked," Francis retorted, smirking.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY, YOU FUCKING WANKER?! HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE THOSE KEYS SHOVED UP YOUR-"

"Hey, like, where's your bathroom?" Alfred interrupted, poking his head into the kitchen.

"Down the hall, first door on your left," Arthur replied, his hands still wrapped around Francis' throat.

"'Kay, thanks," Alfred said, running off.

"Anyway, where was I?" Arthur wondered out loud. "Ah yes... I'M GOING TO TAKE THAT PRETTY FACE OF YOURS AND TURN IT INSIDE-OUT YOU CHEESE-EATING SURRENDER MONKEY!"

"I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY, YOU COOKING-IMPAIRED BLACK SHEEP OF EUROPE! I BET YOUR BRAIN IS JUST AS SCREWED UP AS YOUR LANGUAGE!"

"AT LEAST ENGLISH DOESN'T SOUND LIKE THE SPEAKER IS CHOKING ON THEIR OWN VOMIT!"

"Um, excuse me," Matthew said quietly.

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK, YOU CULTURALLY DEPRIVED LIMEY!"

"OH, YOU MEAN LIKE HOW WE TOOK BACK WATERLOO IN 1815?!"

"DON'T YOU GET ALL HISTORICAL AT ME!"

"WHY, IS IT TOO MUCH FOR YOUR LITTLE FRENCHY PEA-BRAIN TO HANDLE?!"

"AT LEAST MY BRAIN IS IN MY HEAD AND NOT MY ASS!"

Just as Arthur was about to open his mouth to retaliate with some equally vulgar and insulting retort, the teapot whistled loudly.

"Oh look, it's time for tea." Arthur calmly stopped trying to strangle Francis, opening the cabinet and taking out several tea cups and saucers.

Francis sighed and shook his head in disbelief. "You and your tea..."

"Tea's ready, everyone," Arthur announced, putting the cups and pot on a tray and carrying it out into the dining room. He then went back to the kitchen, grabbed several different boxes of tea, and brought those out as well.

"Alright, we've got Earl grey, orange, jasmine, vanilla, rosemary, chai, mint, chamomile... Pick whatever you'd like," he said, brewing a cup of Earl grey for himself.

"This is quite different from Japanese tea," Kiku observed.

"Yes, I suppose it is," Arthur agreed. "I don't think I could live without good British tea."

"Owowowowow! It's hot!" Feliciano shrieked, abruptly placing his cup down and waving his hands frantically in front of his mouth. Ludwig facepalmed.

Meanwhile, Francis returned from the closet with a bottle of wine and a glass.

"Arthur, pour me some wine," he ordered.

"No. Pour your own damn wine," Arthur replied.

"But I'm a guest! I shouldn't have to pour my own wine!" Francis insisted.

"A guest has to be invited," Arthur pointed out, "And I DON'T recall inviting YOU to come over."

"Yes, but it's your house," Francis argued.

"If it bothers you so much, just go home and pour your own bloody wine!"

"I shouldn't have to go all the way home just for some wine!"

"Well I'm not pouring it for you, so either get it yourself, or don't have any at all," Arthur decided, crossing his arms stubbornly. Francis stuck his tongue out at him and reluctantly poured a glass of wine.

It was then that Arthur noticed all the teenagers awkwardly staring at them.

"Oh, er, sorry about that," he said awkwardly. "This is my... coworker, Francis," he explained, carefully avoiding using the word partner this time.

"Hello~" Francis said cheerfully, waving. " It's nice to finally get a proper introduction, oui?"

"Oh hey, I remember you! You're that man-chick who broke my Lego house!" Alfred accused. Francis gasped, looking insulted.

"And you're the little brat who ruined my beautiful foot! And after I just got a nice manicure, too!" he retorted, glaring.

"Are we really having this arguement?" Arthur asked, sighing. "Come on now, this is ridiculous."

"It is absolutely not ridiculous! He ruined my perfectly beautiful foot!" Francis insisted.

"Enough!" Ludwig shouted, slamming his hands on the table. "In case you've forgotten, we came here to get some damn answers, not to sit around having tea while you two argue! Now if you're not going to explain things already, then I am leaving!" With that, he abruptly stood up and stomped away.

"Ludwig, wait!" Feliciano exclaimed, running after him. "Come back! Please! Ludwig!"

The rest of the group was silent for a moment, slightly shocked by what had just happened.

"...Well, shit," Alfred said, breaking the silence.

"I think that about sums things up, yes," Arthur agreed quietly.

* * *

"Ludwig! Wait!" Feliciano shouted, finally catching up to him. The blonde boy was stomping around outside the house, looking annoyed and mumbling German curse words under his breath.

"Please don't go," Feliciano begged. "Don't be mad, you know how Alfred is, this sort of thing happens all the time!"

"I'm sick of this," Ludwig mumbled. "I came here to get some damn answers, and nobody is being serious. In case you've forgotten, he broke into our houses while we were sleeping, and nobody seems to care but me! Oh no, the Lego house! How terrible!" he exclaimed sarcastically. "Assholes, all of them. I shouldn't even have come here. He's probably some sort of psychopath or something. Don't blame me when you all get kidnapped," he finished, kicking a rock for good measure.

Feliciano sighed. "I'm sorry... Really, maybe once everyone calms down he'll explain things better."

"Yeah, well, I'm not sticking around to find out. I'm leaving," Ludwig announced. "I have homework to do and Gilbert will worry if I stay out too late without telling him. It's pointless to stay here."

"Please, you have to stay!" Feliciano insisted. "I don't want you to go!"

"No," Ludwig repeated.

"Please? Just one more try? Please, Ludwig?"

Once again, Ludwig found himself unable to say no to Feliciano's face. The idea of upsetting him- really upsetting him, not just telling him he can't have candy before dinner or beating him at a board game- was just wrong to him.

"...Fine," he said reluctantly, "I'll give it one last try. But if things don't get serious soon, I'm leaving."

"Yay!" Feliciano exclaimed happily, hugging his friend on impulse. "Thank you, Ludwig!"

"Yeah, whatever," Ludwig mumbled. Smiling widely, Feliciano dragged him back inside, where the others were looking rather forlorn.

"Welcome back," Kiku says awkwardly, nodding towards his friends. Realizing they had come back, Arthur quickly stood up.

"I'm very sorry about that," he said sincerely. "You were right. We have more serious business to attend to, and I should have realized that earlier."

"Yes, I may have been a bit... immature," Francis added reluctantly.

"Well anyway, can we PLEASE actually be serious now?" Ludwig asked, annoyed.

"Yes, of course," Arthur replied. "Have a seat."

Ludwig obeyed, sitting in a chair next to Kiku.

"Alright, I suppose you're all wondering about last night," Arthur began, somewhat awkwardly. "It's more than a little difficult to explain, but I'll try my best."

"I'll help too," Francis added. Arthur rolled his eyes.

"I suppose I should start with explaining myself," Arthur mused. "I'm sure you're all wondering about that."

"Yeah, are you like an angel or did you just escape from a preschool Christmas pageant?" Alfred asked, not even being sarcastic. Arthur gave him a glare.

"Neither, thank you very much. I'll start from the beginning. For as long as humanity has existed, there have been special individuals known as 'Guardians'. These people are just what the name states, guardians of the Earth and humanity. Guardians have special powers, longevity, the ability to use magic, etcetera. They also have the ability to grant special powers to certain individuals based on their nationality, so that these individuals may help protect humanity during times of crisis. That's you."

"You can't be serious," Ludwig mumbled.

"I am entirely serious," Arthur replied. "Everything I am telling you is the truth, regardless of whether or not you care to admit it."

"Much as I hate to say it, he is right," Francis added. "He's really not lying, believe me."

"So do we turn into angels now, too?" Matthew asked.

"First of all, I am NOT an angel," Arthur snapped. "That form allows me to use magic and abilities I can't normally. Guardians have been around for far longer than any sort of religion. Where do you think they even got the idea of angels in the first place? Besides, if you really knew what you were talking about you'd know that the angels in the Bible look nothing like the popular image in modern media, I have absolutely no idea where that idea came from in the first place."

"Um, I-I'm sorry," Matthew stammered fearfully. Arthur rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, where was I? Ah yes... Your abilities. First of all, you can't use your powers in everyday life. In order to do that, you have to transform first."

"Oh, you mean like Sailor Moon?" Kiku suggested.

"Um... Well I suppose if you want to think of it that way-"

"Yes, it's almost exactly like that," Francis interrupted. "You even get stylish costumes!"

"Ooh, that sounds like fun!" Feliciano said excitedly.

"It sounds horrible," Ludwig mumbled.

"So can I be Captain America?!" Alfred asked enthusiastically.

"Um, I don't think that's how it works, Al," Matthew said hesitantly.

"Why not?! If Kiku gets to be Sailor Moon I wanna be Captain America!"

"I believe you misunderstood what I said," Kiku replied awkwardly. "I am not Sailor Moon."

"But you just said you were!" Alfred insisted, getting increasingly confused.

"Look, nobody here is Sailor Moon, now can we please get back to business?" Ludwig interrupted, annoyed.

"Yes, this really is getting ridiculous," Arthur agreed.

"I still wanna be Captain America," Alfred mumbled, pouting slightly.

"Anyway, as I was saying," Arthur began, "You boys will have powers more suited to actual combat, whereas mine are slightly more... unorthodox."

"And what is the point of all this?" Ludwig asked suspiciously.

"That's the rather unpleasant part," Arthur said reluctantly.

"As if this whole thing isn't unpleasant," Ludwig mumbled.

"He is serious, I'm afraid," Francis added, for once not teasing anyone.

"I fear we are on the verge of disaster," Arthur explained solemnly. "I sense that there is a war coming, one far different from the wars of the past century. I don't think humanity is prepared for it, and if I'm right, we're going to need far more than just guns and bombs."

"And your solution to this is to get a bunch of high school students, half of whom can't even open a door without getting into trouble," Ludwig said sarcastically. "Well. Good to know the Earth is in good hands."

"Look, I know what I'm doing," Arthur replied, glaring. "And you won't be alone. Francis and I will help you prepare," he added.

"Oh, well in that case, I suppose it's completely fine," Ludwig announced, his words dripping with sarcasm.

"Dude, stop being such an ass about it," Alfred complained. "We get it, you're skeptical. Geez."

"Oh come on, don't tell me you actually believe this crap and are ok with it," Ludwig argued.

"I do," Matthew replied quietly.

"I agree with Matthew-san," Kiku said hesitantly.

"I do too!" Alfred announced, crossing his arms.

"Ve, it sounds kinda weird to me, but I can't really not believe it 'cuz weird stuff happens to me all the time!" Feliciano agreed cheerfully.

Ludwig stood there silently for a moment, before slamming his head against the table in frustration.


	5. There's Also a Costume Party

**((This chapter. I don't even. Just… what.  
I know I said things would start picking up by this chapter, but this… I don't know what happened. orz It's pretty obvious that things will get serious quickly after this, so yeah.))**

It was Saturday. After a week of insanity, the boys had all agreed to have a nice, relaxing, fun weekend.

Being who they were, "relaxing" rarely meant "calm".

They had decided to go see a movie, and then go to a karaoke box afterwards. While Ludwig had pointed out that this was a rather expensive day out for a bunch of unemployed high school students, Alfred pointed out that they lived in an anime and their parents were all literally nonexistent, so money really shouldn't have been much of an issue for them. Thus, it was decided.

Feliciano stood outside the movie theater, waiting impatiently for his friends to arrive. Since it was a weekend, he was wearing some clothes which Stella could not describe but were probably casual and maybe blue. Definitely blue. Yes, Feliciano looked really good in blue, and pretty kawaii if you don't mind me saying so. So anyway, they were all going to the movies and stuff, and Feli was inexplicably the first one there probably just because I feel like he hasn't gotten enough focus as the main character. So yeah, he was there.

Feliciano sat in the lobby of the theater, playing some iPhone game Stella didn't know that either because iPhones are way overrated and thus the only games she knows are Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, and that one with the parking. He might have been playing one of those. Or none of them. We'll never know. But the important part was that he was indeed using his phone. Wait, why is that important? It doesn't really actually manner.

Soon Kiku arrived, and HOLY CRAP IS IT HALFWAY THROUGH NANO ALREADY GOD I AM GOING TO FAIL, anyway Kiku showed up and was all "Yo, Feli, wazzup my homie." Except he didn't actually say that. Here's what he really said.

"Konnichiwa, Feliciano-kun," is what he actually said.

"Ciao, Kiku!" Feliciano replied, going to hug his Japanese friend. Kiku expertly dodged it, a skill he had perfected over several years of being friends with a very touchy-feely Italian.

"I can't wait to see the movie! What about you?" Feliciano exclaimed.

"I... eto... Yes?" Kiku replied confusedly.

"Great!" Feliciano said, oblivious to his friend's confusion. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Jones twins outside the door, and waved enthusiastically to them.

"Yo! We're here!" Alfred announced, waving back. Matthew waved timidly beside him.

"Two tickets for Zombies VS Pirate Ninjas, please," Matthew told the cashier. The cashier said nothing, apparently not noticing him. Matthew coughed awkwardly to get her attention.

"Excuse me," he said, speaking up slightly. The cashier looked up.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't see you there," she explained apologetically.

"Yeah, I get that a lot," Matthew mumbled, sighing. "Um, two tickets for Zombies VS Pirate Ninjas 3D, please."

"Alright, that'll be 2,150 yen," she replied, handing him two tickets. Digging around in his hoodie pocket a bit, he retrieved the appropriate amount of cash and gave it to the cashier, mumbling a quick thanks as he took the tickets.

"So like, what now? Do we just wait?" Alfred wondered, hopping around a bit near the others.

"I guess so," Feliciano replied cheerfully, watching the door.

"I wonder what is keeping Ludwig-san," Kiku said quietly. "He is usually on time for things."

"Yeah, it's a bit odd," Matthew agreed.

"Well the movie starts in like, 10 minutes or something, so he better hurry up," Alfred pointed out. "Anyways, I'm going to go get some popcorn."

Several minutes later, Alfred returned, crying quietly.

"Alfred-san, are you alright?" Kiku asked, rather alarmed.

"I tried to explain to him that this is the normal size for movie theater food here, but he still won't calm down," Matthew explained awkwardly.

"We're going to starve," Alfred whimpered quietly. Feliciano and Matthew patted him on the back comfortingly as he wiped his glasses off.

"Ah... It would appear the movie starts in five minutes," Kiku observed, slightly worried. "We should find seats."

"But Ludwig isn't here yet!" Feliciano exclaimed. "We have to wait for him!"

"Dude, if we wait for him we'll all miss the movie," Alfred pointed out.

"I'm sure he can find us on his own when he gets here," Matthew assured Feliciano.

"No! We have to wait for him!" Feliciano insisted.

As if on cue, Ludwig arrived... Along with Gilbert, and another young man with messy brown hair and a cheerful face.

"Ludwig! You made it!" Feliciano exclaimed happily, immediately glomping him.

"Yeah, hi," Ludwig mumbled, annoyed.

"Guess what! The Awesome Me has decided to join you guys for the movie! Lucky you!" Gilbert announced, grinning.

"And me," the other boy chimed in.

"Yeah, and him," Gilbert agreed.

"Hello Gilbert-san, Antonio-san," Kiku said politely, bowing in greeting.

"Wow, this is great! Everyone's going to see it together!" Feliciano exclaimed, excited.

"Oh yes, it's wonderful," Ludwig mumbled, clearly not happy. Meanwhile, Antonio was holding his phone to his ear, waiting for whoever was on the other end to pick up.

"Hola Francis!" he said cheerfully into the phone. "Gilbert and I are going to see Zombies VS Pirate Ninjas, wanna come?" He paused, waiting for an answer. "Great! See you in a few minutes! Yup, sure! Ok, adios!"

"Francis says he's on his way here," he explained to Gilbert, hanging up his phone.

"Awesome!" Gilbert decided, grinning. "He better hurry up, though, I don't wanna miss the start of the movie."

"Actually, the movie started three minutes ago," Ludwig mumbled, glaring at the two older boys.

"Wait, really?!" Gilbert asked, shocked. "Scheiss! Come on, let's go!" With that, he ran off towards the theater.

"No way dude, I'm gonna get there first!" Alfred exclaimed, running after him and spilling a trail of popcorn in the process. The other four soon followed, although somewhat less loudly.

Once they arrived in the theater, they found a row that was conveniently empty, something you would almost never see happen in real life when arriving late to a popular movie. They all found seats and sat in them, which I don't know why I just wrote that because what else would they do with them? Actually, don't answer that.

"Lucky it's still just the previews," Matthew whispered, sighing in relief.

"I hope it's not too scary!" Feliciano added.

Several minutes after the movie began, Francis arrived, climbing over the others to sit next to Antonio.

"Did I miss anything interesting?" he asked, causing several people in the theater to shush him.

"Not much, just the pirates landing on Zombie Ninja Island," Gilbert whispered back, casually stealing some of Francis' popcorn.

Several minutes later, Francis' phone rang, resulting in more glares from the rest of the audience. Shrugging apologetically, he quickly stepped outside and answered it.

"Hello?"

_"Where the hell are you?!"_ Arthur demanded on the other end.

"At the movies," Francis replied plainly. "I WAS watching Pirates VS Zombie Ninjas until you so rudely interrupted."

_"You were supposed to be at my place an hour ago!"_ Arthur insisted.

"Yeah, but then Antonio called and said they were going to the movies, and I decided that would be more fun," Francis explained explained. He then held his phone a good several feet away from his face in anticipation of Arthur's response. Sure enough, screaming could soon be heard through the speaker.

_"YOU WANKER, THE FATE OF THE BLOODY WORLD IS AT STAKE HERE AND YOU DITCH ME FOR THE CHEESIEST FUCKING MOVIE POSSIBLE YOU IRRESPONSI-"_

Francis hung up in the middle of his rant, rolling his eyes and putting his phone back in his pocket. He then returned to the theater, climbing over the others and sitting down again.

About ten minutes later, a very angry-looking Arthur stomped in, grabbing Francis by his hair and dragging him out of his seat.

"Owowowow! My beautiful hair! Stop, you monster!" he shrieked, kicking at Arthur.

"You DITCHED ME," Arthur snapped, glaring. "You are coming with me RIGHT NOW."

"Dude, shut up!" Alfred complaned. "We're trying to watch a movie here!"

"Ve, hi Arthur!" Feliciano exclaimed cheerfully, apparently oblivious to the situation. Ludwig facepalmed.

"Let me go!" Francis shouted. Meanwhile, all attention was on them, the other members of the audience whispering worriedly. One man quietly left the theater.

"Move it, frog! We have work to do!" Arthur insisted, still dragging Francis.

"Never! I am trying to watch a movie!" Francis argued, trying to get Arthur to let go.

"Please stop fighting," Matthew said quietly. "You're making a scene."

Meanwhile, Gilbert and Antonio were chanting "Go Francis go! Go Francis go!" repeatedly, and Ludwig was trying to pretend he wasn't there. Just as Francis was about to punch Arthur in the face, a security guard walked in.

"Excuse me," the guard said loudly, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you all to leave the theater."

"That's what I've been trying to get him to do," Arthur replied, glaring.

"Aww, man! I wanted to finish the movie!" Gilbert whined.

"Yeah, man, this sucks," Alfred agreed. They reluctantly left the theater.

"I am very sorry for the commotion," Kiku told the security guard, bowing deeply. "Please accept my sincere apologies."

"I agree," Ludwig added. "This is all ridiculous and I'm sorry."

"Will we be able to come back?" Matthew asked worriedly.

"No, I don't think so," the security guard replied, shaking his head.

"Alright, I understand," Matthew said politely. "Thank you anyway."

Their mood thoroughly ruined, the group reluctantly went outside.

"Great," Ludwig mumbled, stomping around half-heartedly and glaring at his brother. "I try to have a nice day with my friends, and you get us banned from a movie theater. Thanks a lot, Gilbert."

"Hey, I'm sorry, West," Gilbert said sincerely. "I had no idea Francis' weirdo friend would show up an cause a fight. Really, I wanted to see the movie as much as you do."

"Well now what do we do?" Alfred asked, his usual hyperactive enthusiasm turned into annoyed bitterness.

"Technically we could still go to karaoke," Kiku pointed out.

"I don't think anyone's up to it anymore..." Matthew said sadly.

"That was disappointing," Antonio decided. "Now I need a churro..."

"Well now that we're all here, how about we go back to my house and do some training?" Arthur suggested.

"No," the five boys said in unison, glaring.

"Pfft, training for what? The nonexistent military?" Gilbert said sarcastically, snorting.

"He means EV training," Ludwig replied quickly. "There's, um, a Pokemon tournament coming up... and our class put together a team."

"There is?" Feliciano asked, confused.

"Yes, there is," Ludwig growled, elbowing Feliciano.

"Dude, no there isn't," Alfred said. Matthew and Ludwig both facepalmed.

"Yes, Alfred-kun, didn't you hear about it?" Kiku insisted, giving Alfred a desperate, pleading look.

"Nope, I think I'd know if we were having a Pokemon tournament," Alfred replied, oblivious to what the others were trying to do.

"You guys are all crazy," Gilbert observed.

"As if you're any less insane," Ludwig mumbled.

"Never said I was," Gilbert pointed out, grinning.

Suddenly, Kiku's phone began to ring, blasting Viva Happy. Glancing at his phone, Kiku frowned in confusion.

"What's wrong, Kiku?" Feliciano asked worriedly.

"It... appears to be Lovino-san," Kiku explained, "Though I do not know why he would call me..." Frowning in confusion, he answered it. "Moshimoshi?"

_"Hey bastard!"_ Lovino greeted him ever-so-politely on the other end_. "Did you know your house is on fire?"_


	6. Trust the System, Matthew

**((This is a long chapter! Told you I'd get the plot going, didn't I? I mean, all I had to do was set a main character's house on fire to do it… *Shot* Also your first taste of the Power of Friendship. Yeah!  
Also, that was indeed an intentional reference to Paint it White. The reason Matthew didn't recognize it is because Canada only had a very small part in the movie, so he wasn't there during that scene. I was so tempted to have Kiku say "No rikey"… orz And the fact that they were all playing Air Ride was a shameless nostalgia nod. I have a friend who always brings Air Ride when she comes over, and we play it for hours on end. Though I know it's unlikely, I'm still desperately hoping Nintento will remake it someday…))**

The group had raced back to their neighborhood as quickly as possible, running through traffic with no regard for safety in their hurry to get to Kiku's house before it was too late. When they arrived, the firetrucks were already there.

Kiku's eyes went wide, horrified and shocked at seeing what destruction had been done to his comfortable home.

"This is terrible…" Alfred mumbled, an uncharacteristic frown on his face.

"I'm so sorry," Arthur added.

Kiku, however, wasn't listening. His face was pale, his eyes focused on a small part of his house that was still burning; His room.

"My… my collection… Miku-chan!" he screamed, running towards the house.

"Kiku, no!" Feliciano shouted, terrified for his friend. Before Kiku could get to the house, Ludwig quickly grabbed him, easily holding back the small Asian boy.

"Let me go! I have to make sure Miku-chan is alright, damn it!" Kiku shrieked, hysterical.

"Calm down!" Ludwig ordered, giving him a stern look. "It's not worth it. Computer programs can be replaced. You can't."

"No! You don't understand!" Kiku insisted, his eyes wide with panic. "Miku-chan is irreplaceable! She is the most perfect girl in the world! She has the voice of an angel! I have to save her!"

"Kiku, look," Matthew said soothingly, gently placing a hand on the terrified boy's shoulder. "The fire is almost out. Maybe your stuff will be ok."

This idea seemed to calm Kiku slightly, his struggling ceasing. After a moment or two of silence, he suddenly began to cry. Tears poured down his face as he slowly fell to his knees.

"It'll be ok, Kiku," Feliciano said quietly, gently hugging his friend.

"No it won't," Kiku whimpered. "My house… all my belongings… my dog…" suddenly Kiku remembered something. "My dog! Where is Pochi?!" he exclaimed, fearing the worst.

"He's right here," Alfred replied, holding a small and terrified looking dog. He put the dog down, and he immediately ran over to Kiku.

"Pochi-kun! I'm so glad you're alright," Kiku said, sighing in relief as he cradled his beloved dog.

"Excuse me," Antonio said to a firefighter, "Do you know how the fire started?"

"I'm afraid not," the firefighter replied, shaking his head sadly. "It'll be a while before we can investigate."

"Ok, thanks anyway," Antonio said politely.

Meanwhile, Arthur was looking over the house, trying to assess the damage. Suddenly something caught his eye. Moving a little closer, he squatted down by a burnt post, taking a small pinch of ash. He sniffed it, rubbed it between his fingers a bit, and frowned.

"Well?" Francis asked, standing behind him.

"Arson," Arthur replied solemnly, "And not just a random attack, either."

"Do you think it could have been them?"

Arthur nodded. "I'm almost positive."

"I never expected them to make a move this soon," Francis observed.

"Nor did I," Arthur agreed. "Things are worse than I thought. Like it or not, they're going to have to prepare for a war."

"They won't agree so quickly, you know," Francis pointed out.

"They have to. They don't have a choice."

"How are we going to break the news to them?" Francis wondered.

"Well, I figure we can just tell them outright," Arthur suggested, standing up. "They're going to have to accept reality sooner or later, no point in sugarcoating things."

"Oui, I suppose you have a point," Francis agreed.

While the two older men discussed dark matters, the boys were trying to get things sorted out and make sure Kiku was ok. Gilbert paced impatiently, holding his phone to his ear as he waited for someone to answer.

"Yao? Ja, it's Gilbert. Listen, I- No, I do not want another panda! I'm trying to be serious here!" he snapped, annoyed at the person on the other end. He sighed. "Yeah, sorry. Listen, this is really important… Kiku's house burned down." A loud exclamation of "Aiyaah! For real?! How could something that terrible happen?!" could be heard on the other end, causing Gilbert to wince. "Geez, no need to blow my ear out! God, that hurt!" he hissed. "Anyway, is it ok if he stays with you until we get things sorted out?" Gilbert paused, waiting for an answer. "Great, thanks. Uh-huh, I'll tell him. Bye."

Hanging up his phone, Gilbert turned to Kiku, who was being comforted by his friends and his dog.

"Kiku? That was Yao on the phone just now," he explained gently. "He said you can stay with him for now, ok?"

"A-arigatou gozaimasu," Kiku stammered, his voice shaking. Gilbert grinned reassuringly and petted Kiku's head.

"See? Everything's going to be just fine!" Feliciano insisted, smiling and hugging Kiku.

"Hey man, if there's anything Mattie and I can do to help, just say so," Alfred added. Kiku nodded silently, sniffling.

"Gilbert and I will do what we can as well," Ludwig agreed. "We all will."

"Me too," Feliciano said. "I'll be sure to make plenty of pasta for you!"

"I'll help out too," Antonio added.

"And if you ever need extra clothes, I'm sure I can find you something perfect," Francis said, smiling confidently.

"Th-thank you, everyone," Kiku said shakily, bowing in thanks.

"You're welcome!" Feliciano replied cheerfully.

"That's what friends are for, right?" Alfred said, smiling.

"Now then, let's get you to Yao's house," Ludwig decided, standing up. He offered Kiku his hand, which he hesitantly took, shakily pulling himself to his feet.

"His house is a bit far for a walk, so we can take my car," Gilbert suggested.

"You can drive?" Kiku asked, suspicious.

"Theoretically," Gilbert replied, shrugging. "I don't think I've ever killed anyone, so it should be fine. Besides, it's either me or Lovino."

"Er, alright then," Kiku said awkwardly, his face going even paler at the thought of getting in a car with Feliciano's hot-tempered older brother.

"Pochi-kun, ikimashou," Kiku told Pochi. The dog obetiently trotted to his side.

"We'll walk with you," Alfred announced, the others nodding in agreement.

And so the group set off, leaving the charred remains of what had once been Kiku's home behind them.

* * *

Sunday soon came, and the four boys (Plus Gilbert) had all agreed to stop by Yao's house and hopefully cheer up Kiku a bit. Feliciano had gone over to Ludwig's house first thing in the morning, before he even ate breakfast.

"Buon giorno!" he called, letting himself in.

"Guten morgen," Ludwig mumbled, pouring himself a bowl of cereal. "Gilbert's still sleeping."

Feliciano nodded and opened the cabinet, grabbing a bowl for himself. He took the box of cereal and dumped some in his bowl, then poured some milk on it. He then stared at his breakfast for a moment, trying to figure out how best to go about eating it.

"You forgot a spoon," Ludwig informed him after several minutes of this.

"Ohhh yeah! No wonder I can't eat it!" Feliciano exclaimed, laughing in embarrassment. He opened a drawer and retrieved a spoon, and then began to eat his now-soggy cereal. Meanwhile, Ludwig had already finished his and was washing the dishes. He washed his bowl and spoon, put them in the dish rack, and then put away the cereal and milk. Finally, he wiped up any milk that had spilled on the counter.

"Why do you always do that?" Feliciano asked curiously.

"So the kitchen will be clean," Ludwig replied plainly.

"But then it'll just get dirty again next time you use it," Feliciano pointed out. "What's the point in cleaning it up every time?"

Ludwig shrugged, not really having an answer to that. "I'm going to go wake up Gilbert," he told Feliciano, heading to his brother's bedroom.

"Wake up," he said simply, pushing the door open without even bothering to knock. Gilbert mumbled something unintelligible in German, rolling over in his sleep.

Scowling, Ludwig quickly yanked the curtains open, letting the sunlight pour into the dark room. Gilbert shrieked and put his hands over his eyes quickly.

"Ow! Ok, ok, I'm up! God!" he hissed, sitting up clumsily with both hands over his eyes.

"Hurry up," Ludwig told him. "We're going to be late."

With that, Ludwig went back to the living room. Just then there came a knock on the door. Sighing, he went to answer it. Standing on the doorstep was the Jones twins, with Alfred looking vaguely miserable.

"Good morning Ludwig," Matthew said politely, waving. "Sorry we're late. Alfred's not a morning person."

"Neither is Gilbert," Ludwig replied, giving Matthew a sympathetic look.

"Alright, let's go," Gilbert said annoyedly, stumbling in. He sat down on the steps and began putting his shoes on. Ludwig and Feliciano did the same.

"Ludwig, will you tie my shoes for me?" Feliciano asked sweetly, waving his foot in Ludwig's face. Rolling his eyes, Ludwig reluctantly did so.

"You're sixteen, you should be able to tie your own shoes by now," he mumbled, sighing.

"I know," Feliciano replied cutely. "But every time I try, it comes out wrong, even if I do exactly what everyone tells me to do..."

Having finished tying both of their shoes, Ludwig stood up, followed by Feliciano.

"Everyone ready to go?" Ludwig asked, brushing off his pants.

"Yeah," Feliciano replied.

"I'm ready, as long as everyone else is," Matthew said.

"I guess," Alfred mumbled.

"Let's go!" Gilbert announced, apparently more awake now. He unlocked the car and got in the driver's seat. Alfred climbed over him, sneaking into the passenger seat before anyone else could, while the other three sat in the back with Matthew in the middle and Feliciano on the right. After some difficulty getting the car started, they began driving to Yao's house.

* * *

The boys had been at Yao's house for a few hours. Kiku was definitely not his usual self (Which was saying something considering his "usual self" rarely showed more emotion than a small smile), but he had perked up a bit upon seeing his friends arrive. Alfred had brought some of Kiku's favorite video games, and Feliciano had made his signature homemade pasta while Matthew made maple cookies for dessert.

The group sat around in the living room, enjoying their cookies. Feliciano, Gilbert, Yao, and Matthew were all playing Kirby Air Ride, while the others snacked while watching them. Soon there came a knock at the door, as if I haven't written that sentence before, and I'm pretty sure in Japan they have one of those intercom thingies at the front gate rather than knocking on the door, but oh well. So someone knocked on the door, and hopefully that will change when I edit this story, but for now there was a knock.

"What an inconvenient time for guest!" Yao exclaimed annoyedly, pausing the game. He put the controller down on the floor and stood up, running to the door. He opened it and blinked confusedly, seeing the two young men standing outside.

"Hello," Arthur said politely.

"Whatever it is, it was either Ivan or Yong Soo," Yao said upon recognizing his school counselor.

"What? No, you're not in any sort of trouble," Arthur explained confusedly. "We came to see Kiku. That is, if it's alright with you," he added.

"Oh," Yao said awkwardly, slightly embarrased. "Go ahead and come in."

Nodding politely to Yao, Arthur and Francis stepped inside, allowing Yao to lead them to the living room.

"Hello everyone," Arthur said, waving to the others as Yao returned to his game.

"Yo, Francis!" Gilbert said, waving, "Check it out! The Awesome Me is totally kicking everyone else's butts!"

"Of course," Francis replied, laughing.

"How are you doing, Kiku?" Arthur asked.

"I am well, thank you," Kiku replied politely, though there was tiredness in his voice.

"Glad to hear it," Arthur said, smiling slightly.

"Schiess! How the hell did Matthew win?!" Gilbert exclaimed, nearly throwing his controller in frustration.

"Just luck, I guess," Matthew said, smiling awkwardly.

"Aiyaah... I'm usually so good at this game, too," Yao complained, sighing.

"You two look tired," Francis observed.

"Wouldn't be so tired if West hadn't woken me up at five in the fucking morning," Gilbert complained.

"It was ten," Ludwig pointed out annoyedly.

"Five, ten, they're both like... Multiples of ten, right? Same thing," Gilbert said dismissively, shrugging. Ludwig facepalmed.

"I had long night," Yao mumbled, rubbing his forehead.

"Why don't you two go out somewhere?" Francis suggested casually.

"...Why do I feel like you're trying to hide something?" Gilbert asked suspiciously.

"I might be, but I also know a good ice cream place," Francis replied, winking.

"If there's ice cream involved, count me in!" Gilbert decided.

"Ice cream does sound good," Yao agreed. "I'll go."

"Great!" Francis announced, putting one arm around each of their shoulders and practically dragging them away, laughing as he went.

The room was silent for a moment, stunned. Finally, Alfred tenatively broke the silence.

"Did... did he just..?"

"Yes," Ludwig replied.

"Alright then..." Alfred said slowly, confused.

"Now that those two are gone, let's get down to business," Arthur announced.

"But I wanna play more Kirby," Feliciano complained.

"No time for that," Arthur replied seriously. "There are far more important matters to attend to."

"Why do you talk all fancy and shit?" Alfred asked curiously.

"Al, let him talk," Matthew said, giving him a look.

Glaring at Alfred, Arthur continued. "Everyone pay attention, this is very important." Once he was satisfied that everyone was indeed listening, he reluctantly gave the news.

"I have reason to believe that Kiku's house fire was no accident. Rather, it was a direct planned attack."

"What?!" everyone else shouted, shocked.

"But... but why? I do not understand, who would do this?" Kiku stammered, turning rather pale.

"I'm not sure exactly," Arthur explained, sighing. "I suspect it may be the same group that's behind several unexplained events around the world. And whoever they are, it seems they don't plan on staying in hiding. We need to prepare for the worst," he said solemnly.

"This is terrible! Only really bad people would do that!" Feliciano exclaimed.

"Well that's presumably what they are, yes," Arthur said, giving the boy an odd glance.

"So what do we do? Call S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Alfred asked, frowning worriedly.

"For the last time, S.H.I.E.L.D. is not real," Matthew said, sighing.

"Uh, that's just what they want you to think," Alfred said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's totally real."

"Alfred, do us all a favor and shut up," Ludwig ordered, glaring. Alfred opened his mouth to say something, but then thought the better of it, not wanting to get on the German boy's bad side. Pouting slightly, he reluctantly stayed quiet.

"As I was saying," Arthur began, "You five are our only hope at the moment. Like it or not, you're going to have to learn to use your powers, and you're going to have to do it soon."

"He is right," Kiku decided, and then added quietly, "I do not like it."

"What he said," Alfred agreed. "I don't like it either."

"Hey, haven't we heard this somewhere before? Like in a movie or something?" Feliciano wondered.

"Not that I know of," Matthew replied, shrugging.

"This is ridiculous," Ludwig mumbled, crossing his arms.

"Look, I know it sounds odd, but you have no choice but to believe me," Arthur pointed out, glaring. "Now are you going to sit around being skeptical while more disasters possibly happen, or are you going to do something about it?"

Ludwig thought about this for a moment, considering Arthur's point and whether or not it was logical. The others, however, made up their minds much quicker.

"Count me in," Alfred announced, nodding determinedly.

"Me too!" Feliciano exclaimed.

"Hai," Kiku agreed.

"And me," Matthew added.

At this point, everyone turned to stare at Ludwig, waiting expectantly for his approval.

"Well? Are you in, or what?" Alfred asked.

"Pleeeease, Ludwig?" Feliciano pleaded.

"...If it'll make you all leave me alone, then fine," Ludwig mumbled reluctantly, sighing.

"Yaaay!" Feliciano exclaimed happily.

"Excellent," Arthur agreed. "We'll start training tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me," Alfred announced.

"It will be right after school, I presume?" Kiku asked.

"Right," Arthur replied. "I trust you all remember how to get to my house?"

"More or less," Ludwig said.

"I do," Matthew agreed.

"It's really easy!" Feliciano announced.

"Great," Arthur said. "I'll see you all tomorrow, then."


	7. A Wild Plot Appeared!

**((And so it begins! I'm with Ludwig and Kiku on this, by the way. This stuff is embarrassing just to write. orz Also, they will have outfits eventually. I have a fantastic artist friend who is thankfully better at costume design than I am, and she's working on their costumes. It might be a while before they're done, but they will be there eventually. So, enjoy the chapter!))**

It was about four o'clock, and the certain five students from Mr. Johnson's class had met up in the courtyard, ready to walk home together. That is, most of them, anyway; Four of them were sitting on a tree bench, but Feliciano was nowhere to be seen.

"Man, where is he? I'm getting really bored," Alfred complained.

"It's not really that unusual for him," Ludwig pointed out. "He probably just got distracted by a cat or something."

"Yeah, but we're all waiting," Alfred said.

"Be that as it may, I am starting to get worried," Kiku admitted. "Remember what Kirkland-sensei said? If something were to happen-"

"Nothing is going to happen," Ludwig said firmly.

"O-of course," Kiku replied awkwardly, staring at his feet in embarrassment.

"I'll try calling him," Matthew suggested, taking out his phone and putting in Feliciano's number. He waited for a moment, listening for an answer.

And waited.

And waited.

"He's not picking up," Matthew said worriedly, frowning in concern.

"That's not good," Alfred stated. Kiku and Ludwig exchanged worried glances. Just as Matthew was about to hang up, he heard something on the other end.

"Hello?" Feliciano answered.

"Hey, it's Mattie," Matthew replied, thankful he was alright. The others sighed in relief.

"Oh hi!" Feliciano said cheerfully. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing much," Matthew replied calmly, before remembering why he had called him. "Listen, Feli, where are you?"

"Near the running track," Feliciano replied. "I found a kitty!"

"That's great, but we have to go, remember?" Matthew prompted.

"Ohhh yeah! Sorry, I'll be right there!" Feliciano exclaimed.

"Ok, see you in a minute, eh?" Matthew said.

"Yup, bye!"

With that, Matthew hung up, letting out an exasperated sigh.

"Well?" Alfred asked, waiting expectantly.

"Ludwig was right," Matthew admitted. "He found a cat and got distracted."

"Of course he did," Ludwig mumbled, rolling his eyes. "Honestly, I don't know what to do with him..."

"At least he is safe," Kiku pointed out.

"Hey guys! Sorry I'm late!" Feliciano said, running up to them and waving.

"What have I told you about stray cats?" Ludwig scolded him, glaring.

"Ve... Sorry, Ludwig, but it was just so cute!" Feliciano explained.

"Can we go now?" Alfred whined.

"Ja, let's go," Ludwig agreed.

"Bet I'll get there first!" Alfred announced, grinning and running ahead.

"I wish he wouldn't do that," Matthew mumbled, sighing.

And so the boys set off for Arthur's house.

* * *

"You know everyone says Jungle Fury is the best, but I like Mystic Force better," Peter rambled between bites of sandwich, "And I want to be just like the Red Ranger!"

"That's nice," Arthur said without paying attention. "Don't talk with your mouth full."

"So what's your favorite Power Ranger?" Peter asked excitedly.

"Who, not what," Arthur reprimanded, "And, er... The one with the blue eyes?" he said hopefully. Peter rolled his eyes.

"You don't know what you're talking about, do you?" he mumbled.

"No, now eat your sandwich," Arthur told him. Sighing, Peter obeyed.

And now for a sentence we've all heard a million times before: Suddenly there came a knock at the door. Man, I need to find more ways to convey the fact that people showed up. What, do they not have doorbells in Japan or what? Anyway, Arthur went to answer the door.

"Ah, there you are," Arthur said, nodding in greeting to the boys standing at the door.

"I apologize for our lateness," Kiku said, bowing deeply.

"Don't worry about it," Arthur replied dismissively. "Come on in."

The boys obeyed, entering the house one by one. There they found Peter sitting on the floor playing with some action figures, until he saw them, at which point he dropped the toys in shock.

"I remember you guys!" he exclaimed, jumping up and pointing in accusation.

"Hello again," Ludwig said, smiling gently. The intimidating boy was surprisingly good with kids.

"So why are you here? Are you gonna have an awesome way cool party or something? Can I come?!" Peter asked excitedly.

"Even better," Arthur replied. "We're going to study."

"Oh," Peter mumbled, staring at his feet and looking disappointed. "Um, I think I'm gonna go to Paula's house, 'kay?"

"Go ahead, just be back in time for dinner," Arthur told him, nodding.

"Ok, see you later!" Peter shouted, waving as he grabbed his action figures and ran out the door.

"Sorry about that," Arthur said apologetically, sighing.

"Oh, it's fine," Matthew replied, smiling awkwardly.

"Aww, are we really going to study? That's boring," Feliciano whined. Ludwig facepalmed.

"Feli, he was lying," Ludwig explained annoyedly, frustrated with his friend's innocent ignorance.

"Ohh... I get it," Feliciano said slowly, nodding.

"Do you really?" Ludwig asked in a monotone voice, not believing him.

"Nope," Feliciano replied cheerfully. Ludwig slammed his head against the wall in frustration.

"So what ARE we gonna do, anyway?" Alfred asked, hanging upside-down off the couch.

"Sit properly," Arthur ordered sharply, glaring at the energetic American.

"But I don't want to," Alfred replied simply. "Now are you gonna answer my question or what?"

Arthur sighed. "I'm going to teach you all to use your powers," he explained, "Though how exactly I'm going to manage that when you can't even learn proper manners is beyond me..."

"I'm sorry about him," Matthew said, apologizing once again.

"It doesn't matter now," Arthur replied, sighing. "We have more important things to worry about. Follow me."

With that, he stood up, walking down the hallway and opening a small closet full of coats, both his and Peter's (And probably a few of Francis' as well). Pushing them aside, he reached for the back wall and found an electronic panel with a keypad and a scanner. He placed his hand on the scanner and waited for a moment, until it gave a cheerful little beep. Removing his hand from the scanner, Arthur pushed a button and the wall swung away.

The five boys stood there shocked, staring in awe at what had once been the back wall of Arthur Kirkland's coat closet.

"Well? Don't just stand there gawking," Arthur interrupted, crossing his arms in annoyance. Before any of them had a chance to respond, he turned away and walked through the now-open door. The boys hesitantly followed, too amazed to even argue or run.

What they found was like nothing any of them had ever seen before, nor would they ever see something like it again. It was as if the U.S.S. Enterprise and Bag End had somehow had a child, and it was wonderful. It was a high-tech bunker-like structure, yet very warm and inviting, with rich hardwood flooring and walls. The whole thing was reminiscent of a late 19th-century British home, if said home was also the base of operations for the Rebel Alliance.

"This is amazing," Ludwig breathed, staring in awe at his surroundings.

"It's just like a movie," Feliciano stated quietly.

"I don't think I've ever seen a movie like this before," Matthew added.

"Dude, this is so cool," Alfred agreed. "It's like the freaking Batcave or something."

"It is certainly unique," Kiku observed.

"This is my little pet project," Arthur explained, unable to hide a small, proud smile. "I've been preparing it in case of an event like this. You five are some of the first to see it," he told them.

"Bonjour!" Francis called, popping out from behind a corner. Arthur jumped.

"Where the hell did you come from?!" he demanded.

"The computer room," Francis said simply. "I got a cool new dating sim but my computer doesn't have the graphics capability to handle it, so I figured I'd just try it out here," he explained, shrugging. Arthur gave him a good solid whack on the head.

"Ow!" Francis exclaimed, rubbing his head.

"What have I told you about using the system computer for video games?!" he reprimanded, glaring.

"Oh, something, I'm sure," Francis replied, "But whenever you start lecturing me I tend to just tune it out. After a while it all starts to sound like 'Blah blah blah Francis blah blah blah responsibility blah blah blah wanker blah blah blah'."

"Why you-"

"Hey, what's this button do?" Feliciano wondered out loud, glancing curiously at a large red button.

"Don't touch anything," Ludwig told him firmly.

"Anything?" Feliciano asked, frowning.

"Anything," Ludwig replied.

"But what about the floor?"

Ludwig sighed in annoyance. "Anything BUT the floor," he corrected.

Smiling mischievously, Feliciano began to poke his German friend in the shoulder. Repeatedly.

"What are you doing?" Ludwig mumbled after the first few pokes.

"I'm touching something," Feliciano replied innocently. Alfred began to laugh loudly.

"Dude, Feli totally dissed you," he observed, still laughing. Ludwig glared at him, blushing in embarrassment.

"Enough of this," Arthur decided. "Let's get down to business, shall we? Go ahead, have a seat."

The boys hesitantly sat down in several leather chairs, still slightly shocked by their surroundings. Francis decided not to sit, instead leaning casually on the back of Arthur's chair, much to the other man's annoyance.

"I'm going to teach you the basics of using your powers," Arthur announced. "Starting today, we'll have training every day, except on weekends."

"Aww man!" Alfred whined.

"But that's a lot," Feliciano agreed.

"I know, but we have no other choice," Arthur pointed out. "If something were to happen, you all need to be ready, and I would never forgive myself if one of you got hurt for the sake of not having to train every day."

"I hate to say it, but he's right," Ludwig agreed.

"So what exactly is this training going to be like?" Matthew asked.

"Well, I figured since it's the first day, we'll start simple," Arthur explained. "You'll start with your transformations, and after that everything else should come naturally. I think."

"Oh, oh, do we get cool outfits like Sailor Moon or Pretty Cure?" Feliciano asked excitedly, raising his hand. Francis laughed.

"I see Feliciano's got his priorities in order," he observed, smirking. Arthur rolled his eyes.

"Look, we don't have all day," he pointed out annoyedly.

"Of course, of course," Francis replied amusedly.

"So do we get secret identities and shit?" Alfred asked.

"Must you be so vulgar about it?" Arthur complained, glaring.

"Says the guy who calls people wankers almost as if it's an affectionate term," Francis pointed out, receiving a dark look from the person in question.

"Yeah, on that note, what's a wanker?" Alfred asked innocently. Arthur and Francis went pale, their expressions of a similar horror to if he had just asked them how babies are made.

"It's... er... Well, uh," Francis stammered, "It's..."

"Oh goodness would you look at the time?" Arthur interrupted quickly, giving a nervous laugh.

"Oh, you're right! It's siesta time!" Feliciano exclaimed. He immediately lay down on the floor and instantly fell asleep.

"...Is that normal?" Arthur asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion at the sleeping Italian boy.

"Unfortunately, yes," Ludwig mumbled.

"He will probably wake up in an hour or so," Kiku added.

"Wait, doesn't he usually take his nap around 3:00? It's way past that," Matthew pointed out confusedly.

"It would appear that Feliciano-kun's watch is stopped," Kiku explained, pointing to Feliciano's watch.

"Well that explains a lot," Ludwig observed. He began gently kicking Feliciano in an attempt to wake him up.

"Get up," he told him, still kicking him. Feliciano simply rolled over, mumbling something about pizza. Ludwig growled in frustration and kicked him slightly harder.

"Whaaat?" Feliciano whined, weakly slapping at Ludwig's foot.

"You can't sleep now," Ludwig told him. "And it's not even the right time. Your watch was stuck."

"Oh, really?" Feliciano asked, sitting up. "I didn't know that..."

"Well now that everyone's AWAKE, let's get to training," Arthur said impatiently. "Follow me."

He led the way down a long hallway, opening another door to reveal a room with steel walls, a padded floor, and some targets.

"This is the practice room," he explained. "It's designed to be used for training, and is probably impossible to destroy, unlike the rest of the house."

"Dude! Cool!" Alfred exclaimed excitedly.

"Now then, here's how things are going to work," Arthur began. "In order to use your powers you have to transform. To do that, you have to say a certain phrase."

"Is it 'password'?" Alfred asked.

"No," Arthur replied, glaring.

"That is Arthur's computer password, though," Francis added. Arthur smacked him on the head.

"What is it, then?" Feliciano asked curiously.

"It's 'World Warrior', and then whatever country you're from, and then 'Transform'," Arthur replied, sighing. "Oh, er, except you," he added awkwardly, pointing to Matthew. "You get to be Canada."

"But I'm not Canadian," Matthew pointed out.

"It's basically the same thing, isn't it?" Arthur said, shrugging.

"No, it's really not," Matthew replied, sighing.

"Anyway, go ahead and try it," Arthur told the boys.

"Yes, do try it out," Francis added, smirking. Arthur glanced at him suspiciously.

"Isn't it a little embarrassing, though?" Kiku commented awkwardly.

"There's no way I'm doing that," Ludwig agreed. Arthur gave them a look, putting his hands on his hips.

"Look, you're going to have to do it sooner or later, so get over-"

"WORD WARRIOR AMERICA, TRANSFORM!" Alfred shouted, grinning. Before anyone could react, there was a blinding light. Alfred was surrounded by sparkles and stars, and his clothes disappeared, replaced with a ridiculously showy outfit that cannot be described yet as it hasn't actually been drawn, but was definitely red, white, and blue. In his hand a large gun materialized. Finally the fancy effects disappeared, the whole process taking about one minute.

"Dude! Awesome! Awesomeawesomeawesome!" Alfred exlcaimed in awe, bouncing with excitement.

"It really IS just like Sailor Moon!" Feliciano announced, amazed.

"Speaking of Sailor Moon, why am I wearing a skirt?" Alfred asked confusedly.

"W-well, your costume is supposed to be a reflection of your true self, I think..." Arthur explained hesitantly. Then he noticed Francis snickering behind him, and turned to give him a dark look.

"What did you do?" he hissed, his eyes burning with anger.

"Remember that time you lost your spellbook, only to have it mysteriously turn up on your dresser the next day?" Francis asked between giggles.

"Yes, why?" Arthur replied suspiciously.

"I had it the whole time~" Francis explained, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. Arthur snapped.

"YOU FUCKING WANKER, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU COULD HAVE DONE?!" he shouted, attempting to strangle Francis.

"I knew what I was doing! Just because I don't have as much of a capability for magic as you do doesn't mean I don't know how it works!" Francis insisted. Meanwhile, Alfred was running around shooting things and laughing in a rather terrifying way, while Feliciano cheered him on and Ludwig and Kiku stared in shock and horror.

"I AM GOING TO MURDER YOU SO HARD," Arthur announced.

"NOT IF I KILL YOU FIRST!" Francis retaliated. They were interrupted when a sparkly bullet whizzed past Francis' head.

"Ahahahaha! This is way fun!" Alfred announced loudly, grinning.

"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE SHOOTING THAT THING!" Francis shouted, hiding behind Arthur.

"I wanna play too!" Feliciano decided. He too transformed, and in a moment he was also wearing a ridiculous and incredibly girly outfit. In his hand was a large and very fancy white flag. He ran after Alfred, smiling widely and waving the white flag.

"This is very... strange," Kiku said slowly, frowning. Ludwig nodded in agreement, too stunned for words.

"Hey guys, check this out! It's like baseball!" Alfred exclaimed, firing his gun towards Feliciano. The others were horrified, until Feliciano hit the bullet with the pole of his flag, sending it flying in the other direction. It was, as Alfred had said, like baseball.

"Stop it before you kill someone," Arthur ordered, but neither of them were listening. They continued to try out their attacks, narrowly avoiding serious injury.

"Uh, can we go home now?" Ludwig asked quietly, glancing around awkwardly in confusion. Arthur sighed.

"Yes, I suppose so," he replied reluctantly.

"Wait! Don't go without me!" Feliciano exclaimed suddenly, not wanting his friends to leave him behind. He ran after them, his outfit disappearing and replacing itself with his normal clothes.

"Aww man, time to go already? I wanted to try some more tricks," Alfred whined.

"It is getting late," Matthew pointed out. Pouting, Alfred reluctantly followed the other boys outside.


	8. At Least He Didn't Eat The Scones

**((Finally, some real action… Agh, the first battle did NOT turn out at all like I had intended it. First I realized I had forgotten about Ludwig's fear of ghosts, and then everything went downhill from there. Not to mention I'm bad at writing battle scenes, and there wasn't much attack-calling because… Well, I'm embarrassed to write it. Orz Gonna just have to do it, but… meh.  
I hope this chapter is still decent…))**

It had been roughly two weeks since the boys had begun their training. Though Arthur and Francis were worried, there had been no real incidents. Training went well, although Ludwig adamantly refused to transform, but he watched the others and helped with what he could. Overall, things were going quite well for the group. Of course, they still had school, which was as much of a challenge for them as it was for anyone else. And thus they sat in history class, bored and tired.

"Remember, those comparative research papers are due by Monday," Mr. Johnson announced. "This includes you, Alfred."

"Aww man! I hate writing stuff!" Alfred complained. Feliciano raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"Um, what day is it?" Feliciano asked innocently.

"Today is Thursday," Mr. Johnson replied.

"Oh no! My paper isn't ready at all!" Feliciano exclaimed, slightly panicked. Mr. Johnson rolled his eyes.

"If you didn't spend so much time slacking off, this wouldn't be a problem," he pointed out. "You should try to be more time efficient. Look at Kiku, for example. His assignments are always on time. I bet he's already halfway done," he added, giving Kiku an approving nod. Kiku nearly jumped when he realized he was talking about him.

"Uh, yes," Kiku replied quickly, sweating ever-so-slightly. Ludwig glanced at him worriedly.

"See? If he can do it, so can you," Mr. Johnson said.

"Yeah but Kiku can tie his shoelaces and I can't," Feliciano pointed out.

"Alright, let me rephrase that," Mr. Johnson decided, "If he can do it, you can at least make an effort to do it. Ok?"

"But making effort to do stuff sucks," Alfred argued.

"Not as much as failing. Trust me, I had to take algebra twice, you do NOT want to be in that position," Mr. Johnson insisted solemnly.

"I don't wanna write either," Alfred replied.

"I'll give you candy if you do it," Mr. Johnson said bluntly.

"Will there be tootsie pops?"

"Yes."

"Done," Alfred announced, pulling out a pencil. Matthew facepalmed.

Just then the bell rang, signalling the end of the school day. The students were all rather relieved, and left to get their things.

* * *

As usual, Feliciano, Ludwig, Kiku, Alfred, and Matthew all walked to Arthur's house together.

"Your paper isn't really ready, is it?" Ludwig asked Kiku as they walked.

"...Not really, no," Kiku admitted, sighing. "I did not have very much time to work on it this week."

"Neither did I," Matthew added, smiling awkwardly.

"I haven't even started mine," Alfred said with a nervous laugh.

"Well I'm glad I'm not the only one!" Feliciano announced cheerfully. "We can all fail together!"

"Oh, sounds wonderful," Ludwig mumbled sarcastically.

"The more the merrier, right? If we all fail, then it won't be so bad!" Alfred agreed.

"Or we could just, you know, not fail," Matthew pointed out.

"Ah, it looks like we have arrived," Kiku interrupted. He went up to the front door and knocked gently, but not too quietly.

"It's unlocked," Arthur shouted from inside. Kiku glanced back at the others confusedly, and was met with shrugs. Frowning slightly, he opened the door.

"Hello," Arthur called, waving from the kitchen. His sleeves were rolled up, and he was wearing an apron with the British flag on it. He appeared to be mixing something in a bowl; Or at least, that was what the boys assumed he was trying to do. He was not doing a very good job of keeping it IN the bowl.

"I'm making scones," Arthur explained cheerfully.

"Don't eat them," Peter whispered loudly, peeking out from behind the couch.

"I heard that," Arthur shouted, giving him a look. Peter grinned sheepishly and ducked behind the couch again.

"Why shouldn't we eat them?" Feliciano asked innocently.

"Because they're terrible," Francis replied, leaning casually against the open doorway.

"Look, just because you two don't appreciate my cooking doesn't mean you should try to ruin it for everyone else," Arthur argued, crossing his arms annoyedly.

"I'm not trying to ruin it, I'm trying to save them from possible lifelong trauma," Francis insisted, smirking.

"How would you like it if I gave YOU a lifelong trauma?" Arthur retaliated darkly. Francis just laughed.

"So... Is there no training today, or what?" Alfred asked confusedly.

"There is, but you'll just have to try to manage on your own," Arthur explained simply.

"I'll make sure they don't kill themselves or anything," Francis decided.

"What's this training you keep talking about?" Peter asked, once again peeking out from the couch.

"High school stuff," Arthur replied casually.

"I want to try too! I'm smart enough!" Peter insisted.

"Trust me, you really don't," Ludwig said honestly.

"I've told you before, no," Arthur replied.

"But I can do it! Really!" Peter argued, getting frustrated.

"No means no," Arthur repeated.

"Fine! I'm not going to play with you jerks!" Peter decided, storming off. "I'm going to Raivis' house!"

"Bye! Have fun!" Feliciano said cheerfully, waving.

Arthur sighed. "Honestly, that boy..."

"Well then, let's go," Francis announced, leading the way to the secret headquarters. Once they got downstairs, he simply went to the computer, opening up Tumblr.

"Uh... Aren't you supposed to be supervising us or something?" Ludwig pointed out awkwardly.

"Oh yes... Go do whatever, just don't kill each other," Francis said distractedly, waving them away as he clicked a video on his dashboard. Ludwig rolled his eyes and mumbled something about being the only responsible person in the entire school. The others confusedly started heading towards the practice room, when suddenly some sort of alarm went off.

"Uh-oh," Francis said quietly.

"What? What happened? Did you press the self-destruct button?! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Feliciano shouted, hiding behind Ludwig.

"No, it's nothing like that," Francis replied hastily. "Um, I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere, ok?" he told them, running off to the upstairs. He quickly ran into the kitchen.

"Arthur, you need to come see this," he announced, his voice lacking the usual teasing, flirtatious quality and instead serious.

"Um, alright," Arthur replied worriedly, putting down the measuring spoon. He followed Francis back to the computer room.

"This doesn't seem good," Francis said gravely, pointing to the monitor.

Biting his lip, Arthur looked at the alert on the screen worriedly. He was silent for a moment.

"What's wrong? Is everything ok?" Matthew asked, concerned. The five boys all looked rather nervous.

"I don't think it's anything too serious, but it looks like you five are going to get to have your first real battle," he announced, sighing.

"But I don't want to fight anyone!" Feliciano insisted, flailing his arms in panic.

"Ano, who exactly is it we will be 'battling'?" Kiku asked hesitantly.

"Spirits," Arthur replied. "It seems that something has corrupted the spirit of the victim of a recent car crash. It's apparently rampaging and destroying cars. It's up to you to stop it," he explained.

"Wait, spirit? You mean like, a ghost?" Alfred asked suspiciously.

"Um... Not exactly, but sort of, yes," Arthur replied awkwardly.

"Eek! That sounds really scary!" Feliciano exclaimed, immediately clinging to Ludwig. It was then that he realized that his normally impervious friend was shaking slightly, and paler than usual.

"Are you ok, Ludwig?" Feliciano asked worriedly.

"I'm fine," Ludwig replied quickly, though he didn't seem it. "Let's just go."

"Hurry up, there's no time to waste," Arthur announced, heading towards the car.

* * *

When they reached the scene several minutes later, there was chaos everywhere. The area was strewn with overturned cars, some of them torn to shreds. There were even a few police cars, though whatever they were attempting to do was quite obviously not effective. In the middle of the carnage was a large demon-like creature. It was a dark purple color, almost black, with soulless red eyes and long, wispy tentacles. It was transparent, with things seen through it being distorted. It was visible in that it WASN'T there, like a void that could only be seen by the distinct lack of stuff inside it.

"THAT'S what you call 'nothing too serious'?" Alfred demanded, giving Arthur a look.

"Alright, so perhaps I underestimated it a bit," Arthur admitted nervously. "Anyway, just go fight it. You've trained enough, haven't you?"

Rolling his eyes, Alfred ran off to fight the monster with the others.

"It looks really scary," Feliciano whispered.

"There is only one thing we can do," Kiku said seriously. "We have to defeat it, or die trying."

"But I don't want to die!" Feliciano shouted. Before Kiku could respond, the monster hurled a car at them. They both screamed.

"Uh... M-m-maple Guard!" Matthew shouted hesitantly, jumping in front of them and gripping his staff tightly. A force field appeared above them, just barely deflecting the car so it didn't hit them.

"Thank you," Kiku replied, running at the monster with his katana. He slashed at one of the tentacles, severing it from the body. The monster roared, a horrible piercing shriek that sounded like multiple pitches at once.

"Come on guys! We can totally pull this off!" Alfred shouted, shooting at the monster. The body of the monster seemed to squish like jello under the impact of the bullets, eventually absorbing them with seemingly no harm done.

"Hahaha, I take it back," Alfred laughed nervously, ducking behind a car.

Meanwhile, Feliciano ran around in panic, waving his white flag frantically. The monster grabbed him, wrapping a tentacle tightly around him and lifting him up off the ground. Feliciano screamed yet again.

"Leave him alone! Sakura Storm!" Kiku shouted, pointing his katana at the tentacle. A fierce wind came out of it, carrying cherry blossoms. It was strong enough to knock the tentacle away, causing Feli to go flying. He was quickly caught by Alfred.

"WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" Feliciano shrieked as Alfred put him down.

"Where the hell is Lu- I mean Germany?" Alfred exclaimed annoyedly.

"I don't know, I don't see him anywhere," Matthew replied, smacking the monster repeatedly with his maple staff. The monster growled and picked up a car, intending to throw it at Matthew.

"Freedom Flame!" Alfred shouted, shooting a fireball at the monster. It dropped the car instantly, shrieking in pain.

"Do you ever wonder why all of our attacks are alliterative?" Kiku pondered.

"Dude I dunno what that means, but I really don't think it's important right now," Alfred replied, shooting the monster some more.

"Fair point," Kiku agreed.

The monster, meanwhile, had grabbed some wreckage from a destroyed car. The four got ready to dodge it, gripping their weapons tightly, only to find that the monster wasn't aiming for them at all. Confused, they turned around, just in time to see the monster attempt to attack a very scared-looking Ludwig.

"Dude, get out of the way!" Alfred shouted. Ludwig gave no sign of hearing him. He merely stood there, his ice blue eyes wide with fear, frozen in a position that looked more like a lost child than tough, serious, no-nonsense Ludwig Beilschmidt.

The others ran to help him, but it was too late. The monster swung the piece of car hard into Ludwig's side, knocking him over and leaving a large cut on his arm.

"No! Ludwig-san!" Kiku exclaimed, horrified.

"Damn it!" Alfred shouted. "You guys go make sure he's ok! Kiku, let's kill this thing!"

"Right!" Matthew nodded, running over to help Ludwig. Kiku and Alfred turned around to fight the monster, determined to finish it off once and for all. Feliciano, meanwhile, was standing in shock.

"Are you ok?" Matthew asked worriedly, helping Ludwig up. Ludwig shook his head silently, still looking rather upset, only this time he was also injured.

"What happened? Are you hurt?"

Ludwig said nothing. Instead, he simply sat down on the ground, trying not to cry. Matthew sighed and bit his lip, turning towards Feliciano.

"He's not responding to me... See if you can get through to him," Matthew explained. But Feliciano wasn't listening. He was staring at the monster, his hands balled into fists and an uncharacteristically angry expression on his face.

"...Italy? Are you ok?" Matthew asked hesitantly, glancing at him worriedly.

"You," Feliciano growled, looking directly at the monster, "Are a VERY! BAD! OCTOPUS!" he shrieked, charging at the monster. He ran incredibly fast, too fast for the monster to have time to react before he began beating it with his white flag.

"Ano, I don't think that is-" Before Kiku could finish, he was interrupted by the sound of the monster screaming as Feliciano hit it reapeatedly, fueled by outrage that the demon had dared to hurt his best friend.

"Woah," Alfred whispered, astonished. "Remind me not to get on his bad side..."

After a few more moments of this, the monster gave one final piercing shriek, and then exploded into a shower of sparkles.

"All done," Feliciano announced cheerfully, turning around and detransforming. All signs of the unstoppable rage from a few moments ago were gone, and he happily skipped over to his injured friend. The others shared a nervous glance, and then cautiously followed Feliciano.

"Poor Ludwig! You're bleeding! That's not good!" Feliciano exclaimed, hugging Ludwig.

"...I'm sorry," Ludwig mumbled weakly. His cheeks were stained with tears, and wow that is an overly dramatic sentence. Such sad wow. Much drama. Very feels. Teer.

"It's ok! Don't cry!" Feliciano insisted. "You didn't do anything wrong, promise!"

"Uh, hey guys? I'm not a doctor or anything, but this doesn't look good," Alfred interrupted, a sense of dread in his voice. "We should probably like, take him to a hospital or something."

"I'm fine," Ludwig insisted, though he clearly wasn't. "I just... need to go home..."

"Al's right," Matthew said. "You need to go to the hospital."

"I agree," Kiku added, nodding seriously.

"No... I-I'm fine..." Ludwig replied quietly, seemingly close to passing out.

"You are not fine," Kiku argued.

"Look, this is getting nowhere fast," Alfred observed. "Like it or not, we're going to the hospital." With that, he effortlessly picked Ludwig up and carried him off to the car. Ludwig was too weak to resist, a distant, clouded look in his blue eyes.

They quickly arrived at the car, where Arthur and Francis were trying to clear away some wreckage that had landed on top of it.

"Is everyone alright? Did you destroy it?" Arthur asked, waving to them.

"Yes, but Ludwig-san is hurt," Kiku replied. "We need to get to the hospital."

"That's no good," Francis stated.

"Put him in the car," Arthur told them, "But be gentle."

Alfred obeyed, carefully putting Ludwig down in the back seat. Feliciano immediately sat next to him, watching him worriedly. Meanwhile, Arthur got in the driver's seat while Francis sat next to him, and Kiku, Alfred, and Matthew squeezed into the middle bench. As soon as everyone was ready, Arthur began driving, taking them to the hospital as fast as possible.


	9. I Spy a Chair!

**((Alternative title: The Ridiculously Long Chapter In Which We Discover That Stella Knows Nothing About Medical Science. Seriously, those doctors are just like "Well, you've got cracked ribs, internal bleeding and a giant cut, but we'll give you a bandaid and some ibuprofen, so get some sleep and you'll be fine!" *Facepalm* The interactions with the hospital staff were drawn from my own experiences in hospitals, by the way. I really appreciate everything they do, but some people… ._.' Also, the fear of the number four thing is totally real. And I'm sorry I named the doctor Dr. Knox… It was the first thing that popped into my head while writing, even if he's nothing like him. Quantity over quality, right? xD Oh, and sorry about Gilbert's potty mouth. orz  
Oh, and the words in the shiritori game are, in order: Taiko drum, convenience store, Japan, rainbow, bicycle, rental house, mansion, Friday, pretty boy, video, dango, garbage, everyone, tears, dashi soup stock, attack, feelings, cheese, and picture dictionary.))**

Arthur, Francis, Feliciano, Kiku, Alfred, and Matthew sat in the waiting room, waiting nervously for the doctor to tell them the news. They had been at the hospital for about an hour, and sitting in a waiting room for an hour was horrid enough even without knowing that your friend was badly injured and there was nothing you could do about it. Ludwig had passed out shortly before they got to the hospital, and everyone was extremely worried about him. And also bored out of their minds.

"I spy something... Black," Alfred decided.

Matthew sighed. "Is it that wheel chair?"

"Yes!" Alfred announced.

"This is the third time you have picked that," Kiku pointed out.

"Well there's not exactly a ton of interesting stuff in the hospital waiting room," Alfred mumbled.

"Why don't we play a different game?" Matthew suggested.

"Like what?"

"I don't know, maybe Twenty Questions or something," Matthew replied, shrugging.

"But that's boring!" Alfred whined.

"Sorry, I don't really have any other ideas," Matthew explained, smiling apologetically.

"We could play Shiritori," Kiku suggested.

"That sounds fun," Matthew agreed.

"Meh, I guess it's better than nothing," Alfred admitted reluctantly.

"I will start," Kiku announced. "Taiko."

"Konbini," Matthew replied.

"Nihon," Alfred added.

"You're not supposed to say things that end with n," Matthew pointed out.

"Why not?! N is a letter!" Alfred argued.

"There are no Japanese words that start with n," Kiku explained.

"Sure there are! What about nani? Or neko?" Alfred insisted.

"Nani starts with na and neko starts with ne," Kiku replied.

"That's stupid," Alfred decided, crossing his arms.

"I am sorry, but those are the rules of the game," Kiku insisted. "You are now out of the game."

"Whatever," Alfred mumbled, pouting.

"Whose turn is it now?" Matthew asked.

"Feliciano-kun's, I think," Kiku replied.

"Oh, um... No thanks," Feliciano said quietly, smiling nervously.

"Are you sure you don't want to play?" Matthew asked, concerned. "It might help you take your mind off things."

"No... But you guys have fun, 'kay?" Feliciano replied, trying his best to be cheerful. Kiku and Matthew shared a worried glance, but didn't bother him further.

"Can I play?" Francis asked. Arthur rolled his eyes, mumbling something as he pretended to read a magazine.

"Of course," Kiku replied politely.

"Alright then, what was the last word?" Francis asked, leaning against the arm of the chair.

"Konbini," Kiku explained.

"Hmm... Niji," Francis decided.

"Jitensha," Kiku replied.

"Shakuya," Matthew added.

"Yashiki."

"Kinyoubi."

"Bishounen."

"You lose," Francis announced.

"Maple," Matthew mumbled, sighing.

"Anyway, bideo," Francis continued, smirking.

"Odango," Kiku replied.

"Gomi."

"Minna."

"Namida."

"Dashi."

"Shingeki."

"Kimochi."

"Chiizu."

"Zukan."

"You lose! I win!" Francis announced, laughing triumphantly.

"Good game," Kiku replied politely, sighing.

"Be quiet, would you? We're in the middle of the waiting room," Arthur interrupted. Just as he was about to go back to reading the magazine (Not that he really cared about anything in it), a nurse came into the room.

"Excuse me, um, are any of you..." she glanced at the clipboard, "...Ludwig Beilschmidt's parents?"

"No, but we brought him here," Arthur replied, putting the magazine down. "I'm the counselor at his school."

"I suppose that will have to do," the nurse said reluctantly, sighing. "Come with me."

"Um, can I come too?" Feliciano asked hesitantly.

"If you must," the nurse replied. And so she led Arthur and Feliciano down annoyingly white hospital corridors with linoleum floors and plastic walls, until they made it to a room labeled Room 203. The nurse knocked on the door gently.

"Come in," replied an unfamiliar voice. The nurse opened the door quietly and led them in.

"You must be this boy's family, I assume? I'm Dr. Knox," the doctor said, offering his hand and smiling kindly.

"No, I'm his school counselor, and this is his friend," Arthur explained, shaking the doctor's hand. "Arthur Kirkland. Nice to meet you."

"So is Ludwig ok? He's not gonna die or anything, right?" Feliciano asked nervously, watching his sleeping friend carefully.

"No, he's not in any danger of dying," Dr. Knox replied, laughing slightly. "What's your name?"

"Um, Feliciano Vargas," Feliciano replied shyly.

"Well, Feliciano, your friend here is going to be just fine," Dr. Knox explained reassuringly. "He has some cracked ribs, a little bit of internal bleeding and a deep cut on his right arm, but give it some time and he'll be just fine."

"That's good news," Arthur agreed. "Well, relatively, anyway."

"It was so scary," Feliciano whimpered, starting to cry. "H-he was bleeding a lot a-and he wouldn't tell me what happened and then he p-passed out and I THOUGHT HE WAS GONNA DIE AND THEN HE'D BE GONE F-FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER AND-"

"Calm down," Arthur ordered the panicked boy. "Ludwig is going to be just fine, alright? Stop freaking out."

"I-I'm sorry," Feliciano said, sniffling. "I was just so worried... I want Ludwig to wake up soon..."

"For now it's best to let him rest," Dr. Knox interrupted. "He was hurt pretty badly, and he needs to sleep in order to heal."

"But he'll wake up soon, right? Right?!" Feliciano demanded, panicking slightly.

"Yes, he'll be fine," Dr. Knox replied. "Until then, though, you need to let him rest."

"O-ok," Feliciano replied quietly, sniffling. He wiped his eyes and sat down in the chair.

"Now then, Mr. Kirkland... Are you able to contact his parents?" Dr. Knox asked, turning towards Arthur.

Arthur shook his head. "He doesn't have any."

"That's a shame. What about a legal guardian?" Dr. Knox inquired.

"Yes, I'll go call him," Arthur replied, stepping out of the room.

"Good," Dr. Knox agreed, sitting on the stool and looking at some graphs on a computer.

"Um... C-can I stay here until Ludwig wakes up?" Feliciano asked hesitantly, doing his best to stop crying.

"As long as you're quiet, then yes," Dr. Knox replied, smiling in a comforting way.

"Thank you," Feliciano mumbled. He pulled his chair closer to the bed and watched Ludwig worriedly.

Soon Arthur returned, putting his phone in his pocket.

"Well?" Dr. Knox asked.

"He's on his way," Arthur replied. "I should probably go tell the others the news."

"Alright," Dr. Knox agreed. "I have some other patients to attend to, but there will be nurses checking in periodically, and you can call me if you need me."

"Thanks for everything, doctor," Arthur said politely, before leaving to inform the others of Ludwig's situation. Dr. Knox followed him out, heading to another room to check on someone else.

Feliciano sighed, watching Ludwig sadly. Though he was sleeping peacefully, he looked to be in pain.

"I'm sorry, Ludwig," Feliciano said quietly. "I don't know what happened, but I'm sorry you got hurt..." He carefully held Ludwig's hand, glancing nervously at the tangle of IVs and such in his wrist. Though he knew they were necessary, they still made him nervous. He wondered if they would make Ludwig nervous too.

He sat like that for several minutes, just quietly waiting for Ludwig to wake up and hoping he would be ok. After a while, a nurse came in.

"Oh, hello there," the nurse said, smiling at him in the same way one would smile at a four-year-old.

"Hello," Feliciano replied confusedly.

"Don't mind me, I'm just checking in," the nurse explained. "What's your name, sweetie?"

"Um... Feliciano. Feliciano Vargas." Feliciano glanced at the nurse suspiciously, confused as to why she was talking to him as if he was stupid.

"You're a very polite boy, Feliciano. How old are you?" the nurse asked.

"Sixteen," Feliciano replied, starting to get slightly annoyed.

"Wow, so grown up," the nurse exclaimed in fake surprised, checking some readings on a monitor and making sure the IV drip was working. After she was satisfied that everything was normal, she wrote something down on a clipboard near the door.

"Your brother is going to be just fine, so you just keep being patient, ok honey? See you later," the nurse said, smiling at Feliciano and leaving the room.

Feliciano sighed. "Why does she think we're brothers? We don't even look alike," he wondered out loud, frowning slightly. "And she talked to me like I was a little kid..."

After a few more minutes of silence, Feliciano began to hear loud talking coming from the hallway. Curious, he put his ear to the door, only to have the door suddenly opened and slammed into his face.

"Owowow! My nose! Oh no! I think my nose is broken!" Feliciano exclaimed, crying again.

"I'm sorry," Arthur said hastily, preoccupied with trying to restrain the very angry red-eyed German teen who apparently had no regard for proper door-opening etiquette.

"West!" Gilbert exclaimed, running to the bed. "What the hell happened?!"

"Would you do us all a favor and shut the hell up? He's sleeping, you know," Arthur snapped.

"What happened?!" Gilbert demanded, giving Arthur a look that burned like fire.

"It's not something that can be explained easily," Arthur replied, glaring back.

"To hell with that! My little brother is in the fucking hospital and you're telling me you won't even explain why?!"

"Yes, I am," Arthur replied stubbornly, "Now get over it."

"You bastard!" Gilbert shouted, going to punch Arthur.

"Stop it!" Feliciano interrupted. "The doctor said we have to be quiet!"

"Fuck the doctor! I need answers!" Gilbert argued.

"Stop yelling," Ludwig mumbled, apparently awake.

"Ludwig! You're awake!" Feliciano exclaimed. "Are you ok?!"

"West! What happened?!" Gilbert also shouted. Ludwig winced, his only reply being something along the lines of "Mmmph."

"Both of you back off, you're overwhelming him," Arthur ordered. Gilbert shot him a dark look.

"Don't tell me what to do, you bastard. He's my brother, I'll talk to him if I want to."

"I was so scared, I thought you were gonna die!" Feliciano told Ludwig, totally ignoring Arthur and Gilbert.

"All of you shut up," Ludwig shouted, glaring. Surprised, they complied.

"I have no idea what the hell is going on," Ludwig explained annoyedly, "And you three are NOT helping."

"Sorry," Feliciano said quietly.

"Now all of you get out," Ludwig ordered.

"What about me?!" Gilbert argued, feeling slightly insulted. Ludwig rolled his eyes.

"Fine, you can stay. But the rest of you leave."

"That's fine with me," Arthur replied, giving Gilbert an I-told-you-so look and dragging Feliciano out of the room.

"What happened?" Gilbert asked quietly, taking a seat in the chair formerly occupied by Feliciano.

"...Nothing," Ludwig lied, avoiding looking at his brother.

"Don't give me that crap. There's no way this is just nothing. Come on, was it something at school? What happened?" Gilbert replied, giving him a look.

"I don't want to talk about it," Ludwig insisted.

"West. Tell me what happened," Gilbert asked again, stern yet worried about his little brother.

"You wouldn't believe me even if I did," Ludwig said quietly, a sort of restrained sadness in his sky blue eyes (However the hell that works, fiction sure does love to dramatize people's eyes).

"Try me."

"No. I know you won't believe me. I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't been there," Ludwig admitted.

"If you believe it, then so will I," Gilbert announced. "Now tell me what happened."

Ludwig waited for a moment, not sure if he believed him. Yet his brother's words were sincere, so after a moment's pause, he told him.

"...Ghosts," Ludwig admitted reluctantly, blushing in embarrassment.

Gilbert blinked in confusion. "What?"

"See? I told you," Ludwig mumbled bitterly, sighing.

"No, it's not that I don't believe you," Gilbert said quickly, "I'm just confused. I mean... Ghosts? Like 'Ooh, spooky, we're going to haunt you' things that you see on Halloween kind of ghosts?"

"Not exactly," Ludwig explained. "This one was big. And dark. And very angry... It threw cars as easily as if they were baseballs," he continued, shuddering at the memories.

"Is that what happened to you?" Gilbert asked, frowning in concern.

"No... It hit me with a piece of scrap metal." Ludwig sighed, trying his best to stay calm. Gilbert, noticing Ludwig's nervousness, petted his head affectionately.

"Well at least you're ok now, right?" he pointed out, grinning in an attempt to cheer his brother up.

"I guess," Ludwig mumbled, not quite as enthusiastic about is as Gilbert was. "I feel horrible, though... I was too scared but stand there. My friends were in danger, and I couldn't help them... God, I'm so pathetic," Ludwig said quietly.

"Don't say that," Gilbert argued. "Everyone has those odd things they're afraid of. It's not your fault."

"I know, but it's never like this. I shouldn't be afraid of everything. And now everyone knows..." Ludwig bit his lip, afraid of what his friends might think.

"Look, it doesn't matter, ok? I doubt they'll care. And if they do, they'll have the Awesome Me to deal with," Gilbert announced.

"I just hope you're right..." Ludwig sighed, hoping desperately that his friends wouldn't mind.

* * *

It had been two days since the incident. Ludwig was, of course, still in the hospital, and bored out of his mind. Though he did have his phone, it was low on battery, and since he couldn't use his right arm much it was difficult to play any games. All he could do really was watch TV, which pretty much only had weird Japanese dramas and kids' anime. Since there was nothing else, Ludwig had reluctantly settled on some old reruns of Hikaru no Go. It wasn't the most interesting show, and he had seen it all already, but it was better than nothing at least. At about 1:00, someone knocked on the door. Ludwig sighed.

"Come in," he said reluctantly, expecting it to be another nurse or doctor come to check on him. To his surprise, it was Kiku.

"Hello Ludwig-san," Kiku greeted, bowing politely. "I apologize if I am bothering you."

"No, not at all," Ludwig replied quickly, actually quite happy to see his friend.

"I brought you some things," Kiku said, placing a box on the bedside table.

"Oh, thanks," Ludwig said sincerely, quite relieved to have something to do. In the box was a ninja movie, Ludwig's phone charger, a box of Pocky, some recent manga anthologies, a book about the periodic table of elements, and a get-well card from the rest of their class.

"How have you been?" Kiku asked.

"In all honesty? Terrible," Ludwig replied. "I mean aside from the whole horrible injuries thing, I'm bored out of my mind, I'm not supposed to move my right arm at all, it's cold and the food is terrible, and I got hardly any sleep because every time I start to fall asleep some nurse comes in and asks me ridiculous and incredibly patronizing questions like 'How are you feeling, sweetie?' or 'Does anything hurt' or 'Don't forget to get your rest, ok?'" Ludwig blurted out, annoyed.

Kiku blinked in surprise, not having expected an honest answer, much less a whole rant.

"I... see," he said slowly, slightly unsure what to do. "Well, ah, I hope you feel better."

"Sorry," Ludwig apologized awkwardly. "I didn't mean to blow up at you like that. It's just been frustrating."

"Do not worry about it," Kiku replied. "Oh, by the way, Johnson-sensei said you do not have to do any homework until you recover. I suspect it may have to do with the fact that you are one of very few students to actually turn in assignments on time on a regular basis..." Kiku admitted awkwardly.

"You're probably right," Ludwig agreed, rolling his eyes at the thought of his irresponsible friends. "What about you? Have you had any time to work on that paper?"

"A little bit, yes," Kiku replied, nodding. "Although Feliciano-kun and Alfred-san are not doing as well."

"Of course not," Ludwig mumbled, facepalming. "It would be a miracle if those two were ever on time for anything."

"Well, they are if there is food involved," Kiku pointed out, laughing a little.

"Yes, I suppose that's true," Ludwig agreed. He couldn't help but smile at that.

"Well, I had best be going," Kiku said reluctantly.

"Alright then," Ludwig replied, disappointed yet understanding. "See you later, then."

Kiku nodded politely. "Goodbye, Ludwig-san. Good luck with your recovery." With that, Kiku turned to leave. Suddenly he stopped in the doorway, remembering something.

"Ano... Ludwig-san?" Kiku began hesitantly.

"Yes?"

"Forgive me if this is a rude question, but... ah... Why did you not move when that... Thing attacked you?"

Ludwig froze, not having anticipating this question. Kiku looked at him expectantly, patiently awaiting his answer, unaware of how upsetting it was. Wait, what am I talking about? Kiku is an expert at reading the mood. He should notice. Anyway, back to the scene.

"...I... It doesn't matter," Ludwig replied hastily.

"If it was enough to get you hospitalized, it must be important," Kiku pointed out.

"I don't want to talk about it," Ludwig mumbled. "It's stupid."

"I hate to be rude and pushy, but I do believe it is important that you tell me," Kiku insisted. "Please," he added.

"No."

"I will not tell anyone," Kiku decided, giving Ludwig a sincere look.

"...Promise?"

"You have my word," Kiku replied, nodding seriously.

Ludwig sighed, trying to work up the courage to tell his friend his embarrasing secret. After a few moments, he reluctantly told him.

"...I... I'm afraid of ghosts," he admitted quietly, avoiding looking at Kiku in shame.

"Really?" Kiku asked, surprised. Ludwig nodded slightly, still not looking at him.

"I see," Kiku announced, sighing and smiling in relief. "Well I am glad that is all. There is nothing wrong with being afraid of ghosts, you know."

"Yes there is," Ludwig mumbled quietly. "It's ridiculous... I'm not supposed to be afraid of anything, much less something so unscientific."

"That is very unrealistic," Kiku argued. "Nobody is without fear. Everyone is afraid of something. Fear of ghosts is very common here in Japan. Ghosts are a part of our folklore, after all."

"Still, it's not right... I shouldn't be afraid of them," Ludwig repeated.

Kiku paused. "Do you know what one of the most common phobias in Japan is?"

"I don't know, fear of heights?" Ludwig guessed, shrugging.

Kiku shook his head. "Tetraphobia."

"What's that?" Ludwig asked, confused.

"It is the fear of the number four," Kiku replied, smiling slightly.

Ludwig frowned in confusion. "Why four?"

"Because," Kiku explained, "In Japanese, as I am sure you know, the kanji for four is usually read as 'yon', but can also be written as 'Shi'."

"Oh, like death?" Ludwig suggested. Kiku nodded.

"But that doesn't make any sense," Ludwig pointed out. "It's just a kanji. I'm sure there are plenty of things that can be written as 'shi', that's no reason to be afraid of them."

"Exactly," Kiku replied. "It is irrational, yes, but still a very common fear. So you see, there is nothing to be ashamed of."

"...I suppose you're right," Ludwig admitted, pondering this idea. "You still won't tell anyone, right?"

"Of course not," Kiku replied sincerely.

"Thank you," Ludwig said quietly.

Kiku smiled. "You are welcome."


	10. OMG, Liek, Let's Totally Go Shopping

**((Two chapters in one day! Yeah! I threw in a hell of a lot of references in this one, including some fanfic references. I got the chance to introduce lots of incredibly minor characters, too. And some more action for you guys too! All the characters have elements, can you guess what they are? :3  
Oh yes, and my mom has informed me that not only would Ludwig not have been admitted to the hospital for his wounds, but if he had internal bleeding, he'd probably be dead. Oops. Oh well… Do demo ii, right? \(^o^)/ ))**

It had been roughly one week, and Ludwig was finally sent home from the hospital. Feliciano had been ecstatic, and wasted no time in excitedly telling him everything that had happened while he had been away, in great detail.

"So then Berwald tried to disassemble the door, but it was really poorly made so he couldn't, and Elise started screaming 'cuz there was a spider and spiders are like way super scary and she said it was in her hair and-"

"Feli," Ludwig interrupted, "We're here."

"Oh yeah! We are!" Feliciano observed, nodding in agreement as they walked up the front steps of World Academy W.

"Everyone's going to be so happy you're back!" Feliciano continued, heading to his locker. "We all missed you, and Alfred and Gilbert actually kind of blew up half the science lab 'cuz you weren't around to tell them not to, or did I tell you about that already? Oh hey, look!" Feliciano exclaimed, pointing to Ludwig's locker. It had a collection of "Welcome back" sticky notes stuck to it, from his various friends and classmates.

"Oh, that's nice," Ludwig said, smiling slightly. It was a nice surprised. Slightly more cheerful than he had been before, he opened his locker, only to slam it closed again in horror.

"What's wrong?" Feliciano asked, frowning in confusion and trying to see what was in Ludwig's locker that was so terrible.

"Nothing," Ludwig replied hastily. "Don't look in there."

"Why not?" Feliciano asked innocently.

"Welcome back, West," Gilbert said teasingly, grinning at him with a mischievous look in his eyes.

"Damn it, Gilbert, what the hell is that for?!" Ludwig demanded, blushing bright red.

"Well, the others were all messing with your locker, so I figured I'd get in on the fun," Gilbert explained, feigning innocence.

"Ve, hi Gilbert!" Feliciano said cheerfully, oblivious to his prank.

"Hey Feli!" Gilbert replied, waving.

"Where did you even get all of those?" Ludwig mumbled.

"Elizabeta lent them to me," Gilbert replied. "She has a pretty impressive doujinshi collection, you know."

"You mean you stole them."

"Hey, I never said she was aware that she lent them to me," Gilbert argued defensively. Ludwig rolled his eyes.

"Ah, Ludwig-san! Welcome back!" Kiku said, nodding in greeting.

"Thanks," Ludwig replied, waving.

"Yo, Ludwig! Good to have you back, dude!" Alfred added, waving enthusiastically and grinning.

"It's good to be back," Ludwig replied, sighing.

"Welcome back," Matthew agreed.

"Hello," said a cheerful voice from behind Ludwig. Ludwig jumped slightly, turning to see Ivan, the Russian student from his brother's class, looming over him with an innocent smile on his face."

"Your brother was saying you had an injury, but I see you are all better now, da?" Ivan asked, still smiling as he held a large water pipe behind his back.

"Um, yes," Ludwig replied awkwardly, slightly intimidated by the strange boy.

"That is good to hear," Ivan replied, patting Ludwig on the shoulder roughly. He stared at him thoughtfully for a moment, then smiled again.

"Well, have a good day," Ivan said mysteriously, waving over his shoulder as he walked away.

"That guy's creepy," Feliciano whispered, scared. Ludwig nodded in agreement.

"Oh, Ludwig! You're back!" another person exclaimed. This time it was Tino, the cheerful Finnish student from the same class as them.

"Yeah," Ludwig replied, nodding politely.

"Welcome back," Toris, their Lithuanian classmate, added.

"So like, did your guts fall out?" Feliks, Toris' weird Polish friend, asked.

"Um, no," Ludwig replied confusedly.

"EDUARD! I WON THE BET! NOW YOU GOTTA PAY UP!" Feliks shouted down the hall.

"Aww, but I just had to buy Ivan a cookie! I'm not made of money, you know!" Eduard shouted back reluctantly.

"That's like, not my problem," Feliks replied, shrugging.

"Oh, Ludwig! Welcome back aru!" Yao said, waving.

"Thanks," Ludwig replied.

"Korea invented hospitals, you know," his cousin Yong Soo lied. Yao rolled his eyes.

"That's like, totally untrue," Yao's little brother Leon argued.

"No it's not," Yong Soo insisted.

"Yeah it is," Leon replied.

"You're just jealous 'cuz Aniki likes me better," Yong Soo decided, sticking his tongue out at Leon.

"Whatever," Leon mumbled.

"Don't say things like that aru!" Yao exclaimed, whacking Yong Soo on the head.

Suddenly the bell rang, indicating that it was time to get to class. The students all headed to their various classrooms, chatting amongt themselves as they walked.

* * *

Though it had been a long day, the five boys had done just fine, and were outside hanging out on the front steps of the school.

"So now that Ludwig's back and not dead and stuff, I was thinking we should go to the mall or something," Alfred suggested. "You know, since it's Friday and all."

"That sounds fun," Matthew agreed. "And I do have to find a birthday present for Juan, so the mall would be a good idea."

"Ooh, yeah! Let's go!" Feliciano decided, bouncing excitedly.

"I think that is a nice idea," Kiku added.

"It's fine with me," Ludwig said, shrugging.

"Yeah! Let's do it!" Alfred announced, racing down the steps. The others followed him, heading towards the local shopping mall instead of their respective houses (Or in Kiku's case, Yao's house).

When they arrived, the mall was busy, but not too crowded. Since they were all hungry, they first went to the cafeteria area. Alfred got his food from McDonald's, Kiku and Matthew got some generic Japanese food, Ludwig got soup, and Feliciano got Sbarro, despite insisting that it really was terrible pizza. Which it was, at least compared to his and Lovino's homemade pizzas.

"So where are we gonna go first?" Feliciano asked through a mouthful of pizza.

"Don't talk with food in your mouth," Ludwig scolded him.

"I would like to visit the manga shop," Kiku suggested. "As long as it is alright with everyone else, I mean."

"Sounds good to me," Alfred replied. Matthew nodded in agreement.

"Maybe I'll buy a bunch of girly-girl shoujo manga and put them in Gilbert's locker," Ludwig muttered darkly. Feliciano glanced at him in confusion.

"Oh yeah, how's your doujinshi collection coming along?" Alfred asked, shoving a few french fries in his mouth. Ludwig nearly choked on his soda.

"You have a doujinshi collection?" Kiku asked, confused. It didn't seem like something his super-serious German friend would be into. Then again...

"Those are NOT mine," Ludwig insisted, blushing as red as a tomato. "They're Elizabeta's. My brother stole them and put them in my locker as a prank," he explained annoyedly, extremely embarrassed.

"Ha! That's a good one!" Alfred exclaimed. Ludwig gave him a dark look.

"Oh, I see," Kiku replied awkwardly, blushing slightly. "I am sorry for misunderstanding."

"It's not your fault," Ludwig admitted, sighing.

"What kind of doujinshi does Ludwig like?" Feliciano asked curiously.

"For the last time, I do not read doujinshi!" Ludwig insisted.

"Why not? Some of them are good," Feliciano argued. "Like I read this one with Konata and Kagami where-"

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP," Ludwig shouted, putting his hands over his ears.

"...Does he realize that not all doujinshi are dirty?" Matthew asked, smiling awkwardly.

"Huh? They're not?" Alfred asked, surprised. Kiku facepalmed.

"I wonder if anyone's made Yotsuba doujinshi?" Feliciano wondered out loud.

"Probably," Alfred replied. "Rule 34, dude."

"What's that?"

"Can we PLEASE stop discussing this?" Ludwig interrupted, rather uncomfortable with the awkward and embarrassing conversation.

"Yes, I think perhaps we should talk about something else now," Kiku agreed awkwardly, still blushing.

"If everyone's ready, why don't we go shopping now?" Matthew suggested, successfully dissipating the awkwardness.

"Sounds good to me!" Feliciano announced.

"Yeah, let's go," Alfred agreed. Standing up, he walked over to the trash can and threw out his garbage. The others did so as well, and Ludwig, being the neat freak he was, wiped down the table.

"Ok dudes, where's the doujinshi store?" Alfred asked, looking around.

"It is a manga shop, not a doujinshi shop," Kiku pointed out awkwardly, "And this way." He started walking, leading the way to the manga shop. The others followed him.

"Wait! Wait wait wait!" Feliciano shouted suddenly, stopping abruptly and causing Matthew to crash into him.

"What's wrong?!" Alfred demanded.

"I have to pee," Feliciano explained innocently. Ludwig facepalmed.

"Well hurry up bro, we don't have all day," Alfred replied, rolling his eyes.

So, after a short bathroom break, the boys resumed their journey to the manga shop. It was a modest-sized shop, family owned, yet had a fairly good selection. It even had, much to Ludwig's horror, a doujinshi section.

"Hey, this is pretty cool stuff," Alfred observed, examining a volume of Death Note.

"Ooh, Ludwig, look! Ninjas!" Feliciano exclaimed, holding up a copy of Naruto. Ludwig rolled his eyes.

"Please. Naruto is completely unrealistic. I prefer Rurouni Kenshin," he decided, crossing his arms.

"RuroKen isn't all that realistic either," Matthew pointed out. "I mean, I don't think people can really shatter rocks with their fists, two layers or not."

"At least Sanosuke doesn't summon magic copies of himself," Ludwig argued.

"I think they are both good series," Kiku interrupted.

"Yeah but Digimon beats all of them," Alfred announced. Ludwig banged his head against the wall in frustration.

Feliciano, meanwhile, was sitting on the floor happily reading a volume of Cardcaptor Sakura.

Eventually they finished arguing, chose their manga, and checked it out.

"Where to next?" Matthew asked.

"I'd like to stop by GameStop," Alfred replied. "Ha, get it? 'Stop by'? Game'Stop'? Oh man, I'm hilarious," he exclaimed, laughing like crazy at his own joke.

"Oh yes, so creative," Ludwig mumbled sarcastically.

"Alright," Matthew agreed. "Maybe I can find something for Juan there."

"I spent most of my money on manga," Feliciano admitted. "But at least I can play the demos!"

"GameStop it is, then," Ludwig announced. And so they went to GameStop. Just as they were about to head in, they heard screaming coming from the cafeteria.

"Kyaaaaaaa! Don't hurt me!" a young girl screamed.

"It's trying to destroy McDonald's!" a man shouted, running away from the food court.

"WHAT?! WHERE?! WHAT KIND OF HORRIBLE PERSON WOULD DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!" Alfred exclaimed.

"That is what," Kiku replied, pointing.

Standing in the middle of the food court was a large shadow-like creature, shaped rather like some sort of incredibly curvy, pointy cat, with narrow green eyes and shadowy claws. It actually looked kind of like Mimi from Invader Zim, except bigger and more evil, and also more transparent. Sure enough, it did indeed appear to be attacking McDonald's, its ghost claws easily slicing through the countertop.

"That's unacceptable! WORLD WARRIOR AMERICA, TRANSFORM!" Alfred shouted, activating his ridiculously long and girly transformation sequence, which probably involved electric guitar background music because that is the sort of transformation music he would have.

"YOU LEAVE MY BURGERS ALONE, YOU COMMUNIST!" he ordered, running towards the monster and shooting at it.

"Al, wait! Don't go rushing in like that!" Matthew shouted after him. Sighing in exasperation, he transformed as well, with Kiku and Feliciano following suit.

The cat-demon-ghost-thing hissed, clawing at Alfred. He dodged it, but just barely.

"Flare Blitz!" he shouted. "...No, wait, that's a Pokemon move... Crap."

"Look out!" Matthew exclaimed, jumping in front of him. "Maple Guard!"

Matthew's shield went up just in time, blocking the cat-demon's sharp ghost claws. The cat-demon growled angrily, baring sharp fangs.

"Wind Whip!" Kiku shouted, pointing his katana at the cat-demon. A swift, cold wind blew from it, lashing out at the demon like a chain. The cat shrieked, swiping its huge paw at Kiku in an attempt to knock him over. Kiku nimbly jumped over it, swinging his katana downward as he did. He stabbed the cat-demon, causing it to yowl loudly, swinging its paw wildly in pain. This time it succeeded in hitting him, sending him flying into a column.

"No! Bad kitty!" Feliciano exclaimed, waving his white flag at it. The cat-demon stopped, hypnotized by the colorful waving white flag. It followed it with its eyes, then began batting at it. Seeing an opportunity, Kiku and Alfred took advantage of its distractedness to attack it from behind. The cat-demon screamed in pain before exploding into magic desu sparkles just like the giant car-smashing octopus thing.

"Well that was surprisingly easy," Alfred observed, detransforming.

"Are you ok, Kiku?" Matthew asked, concerned. Kiku nodded.

"I am fine. Just a little bruised," he replied.

"That's good," Matthew agreed, smiling in relief.

"It really was just like a giant kitty," Feliciano said, amazed. "Pookie does the same thing. Except she's smaller and less terrifying," he added.

"I guess we better head home," Alfred pointed out, sighing. "I'm tired."

"Yes, it is getting rather late," Kiku agreed.

"And I have a lot of homework," Ludwig added. "Apparently 'no homework until you recover' means 'do it all at the same damn time'..."

"Let's go home," Matthew agreed.

So, once they were all satisfied that the mall wasn't going to explode or anything, the boys finally headed home.


	11. It's Art

**((Micronationsssss! :D I've been wanting to do a chapter about these guys for a while. It's a nice break from all the drama and tension of the actual plot. I had to make up a lot of their names, by the way, so YMMV. In case you can't tell, Paula is Wy, Marcello is Seborga (I wanted to name him Valentino, but apparently he's usually called Marcello, so yeah), and Max is Ladonia. I know it's a weird name for him, but I felt like he needed a Pokemon name, and it was the first thing I thought of.))**

It was Saturday, and Feliciano was hanging out at Ludwig's house, as he often did. Ludwig had a lot of homework to do, though, so he couldn't spend very much time with Feliciano. So, in order to keep himself entertained, Feliciano was watching TV. The show he had been watching before had ended, so he flipped through the channels looking for something else to watch.

"Hmm, there's nothing good on," he sighed.

"Why don't you do something else? Like maybe actually do your homework for once?" Ludwig suggested, not looking up from his work.

"Nah, I don't wanna," Feliciano replied lazily. He continued his channel surfing, stopping when he saw something interesting on the news.

"Hey, Ludwig, look! We're on TV!" Feliciano exclaimed, pointing excitedly at the screen.

"What?" This got Ludwig interested. Glancing up from his papers, he looked at the TV. Sure enough, his four friends were on TV. It was camcorder footage from the battle at the mall from the day before. The headline scrolling across the screen was "Mysterious Girls Fight Strange Demon in Mall".

"Why do they think we're girls?" Feliciano wondered confusedly.

"Oh, I don't know," Ludwig replied with sarcastic innocence, "I mean, there's no way it could have anything to do with the pink frilly miniskirts or giant ribbons..."

"Hey, just 'cuz we have pretty outfits doesn't mean we're girls," Feliciano argued. "Boys can wear dresses too. You should try it sometimes!"

"Yeah, no thanks," Ludwig mumbled, not at all liking the idea.

"But isn't it cool that we're on TV, though?" Feliciano repeated, dancing around excitedly. "We're gonna be famous!"

"I'm not sure that's such a good thing," Ludwig replied, actually concerned.

"Why?" Feliciano asked, frowning in confusion.

"Because," Ludwig began, "It's not that difficult to figure out who you guys are. Who knows who might come after you?"

"Yeah, but the video quality's really bad," Feliciano pointed out. "Hey, why is it that whenever someone gets a video of something crazy like aliens or whatever, it's always really bad quality?" he wondered. "I mean, it would make sense if it was ten years ago or so, but most cameras are HD now."

"I don't know, bad luck, I guess," Ludwig replied, shrugging and returning to his homework.

"It's weird, though," Feliciano added, frowning thoughtfully. "Ooh, maybe the people at the news station look through all the videos people take, and then pick the one with the worst quality?" he suggested.

"Now why would they do that?" Ludwig replied, giving Feliciano an odd look.

"I don't know, maybe it makes things more mysterious," Feliciano decided.

"If you say so."

"Hmm... Maybe Kiku knows! He's smart!"

"Maybe," Ludwig mumbled distractedly, pondering the answer to a math problem.

Having already decided that Kiku must somehow know everything about news stations and strange video recordings, Feliciano pulled out his phone and put in Kiku's number. He waited for a moment, and after a few seconds, Kiku picked up.

"Moshimoshi?"

"Ciao, Kiku!" Feliciano said cheerfully. "Guess what!"

"Um... It is Saturday?" Kiku guessed confusedly.

"Nope! Well, yes, but no. Guess again!"

"Did my house suddenly grow back?" Kiku suggested annoyedly.

Feliciano paused, not quite sure how to respond now that the mood had been thoroughly ruined.

Kiku sighed. "What is it?"

"We're on TV!" Feliciano announced excitedly.

"We are?" Kiku repeated, surprised.

"Yeah! Isn't it cool?" Feliciano replied, quite happy.

Still shocked, Kiku turned on the TV, switching it to NHK General TV. Just as Feliciano said, there was a special report that seemed to be about the mall incident.

"This is rather unexpected," Kiku said, not entirely sure what to think. "Do the others know about this?"

"Well I don't know about the twins, but Ludwig-"

"GUYS GUYS GUYS YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE THIS WE'RE FREAKING ON TV!" Alfred screamed, flailing his arms in excitement as he ran into the living room.

"...How did you get in my house?" Ludwig asked, mildly horrified.

"You left the door unlocked," Alfred replied casually. Ludwig gave Feliciano a look.

"But I did lock it," Feliciano insisted confusedly.

"What? Really?" Alfred asked, surprised. "Well that would explain why it looked kinda broken..."

Ludwig slammed his book into his face repeatedly.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Arthur's house, Peter was sitting in the living room playing with some action figures while Arthur made lunch. He made exaggerated action noises as his action figures flailed at each other.

"Yeah! Take that! Go back where you came from, you- Huh?" he exclaimed curiously, glancing up at the TV. It was showing a video of what looked like some sort of super heroes, then cut to the station, where pictures of the strange figures along with the phrases "Mysterious Girls Fight Strange Demon in Mall" and "Who Are They?" made up the background, while a man in a suit gave a report.

_"It is unknown who the mystery girls are, where they came from, or what the strange creature attacking the mall was. Some people suggest it was an elaborate publicity stunt for a video game, while others say it is a sign of the apocalypse. Let's go to our field reporter, Namikawa-san."_

_The camera changed to a woman in the mall, holding a microphone._

_"Thank you, Yamada-san," the woman said. "I'm here on the scene of the strange battle, hoping to get some opinions as to what exactly happened yesterday." She turned to a couple and their young daughter. "Excuse me, would you mind answering a few questions for NHK?"_

_"Of course," the man replied._

_"Thank you. First off, who do you think those girls were?"_

_"They were the Sailor Scouts!" the little girl exclaimed, her eyes wide with wonder and admiration. The reporter laughed._

_"I don't know," the man said thoughtfully. "Some sort of actresses, I suppose. A new idol group, maybe?"_

_"I think they must have been cosplayers," the woman suggested._

_"Both are excellent ideas," the reporter agreed. "Next, what do you think it was that they were seemingly fighting?"_

_"A bad guy!" the little girl decided, nodding seriously._

_"Anamatronics," the man replied, "Or maybe a projection."_

_"Another cosplayer, maybe?"_

The report continued on like that for several minutes, with answers ranging from robots to youkai to Americans to the apocalypse. Peter, however, wasn't interested in any wild theories. He already had his own idea of what was going on.

"Wow! That's so cool! Real super heroes!" he exclaimed, amazed. "Uncle Arthur, did you see that?!"

"Hmm? See what?" Arthur replied distractedly, stirring a pot of god-knows-what.

"Super heroes! On TV! Real ones!" Peter shouted, jumping on the couch.

"That's nice," Arthur said, not really paying attention.

"I've gotta show Raivis!" Peter announced, running to the door.

"Wait!" Arthur called. "You're not going out now. Eat your lunch first."

Peter let out an exaggerated sigh and slowly stomped over to the table. He shoved his grilled cheese sandwich in his face, eating it in several dangerously large bites, before running out again.

"Raivis! Raivis! You'll never believe this!" Peter shouted, running down the street to his best friend's house. Rushing past the front gate, he ran into the back yard and around to the sliding glass door. He stood with his face pressed against the door, banging and fogging up the glass with his shouts until the boy inside noticed him. Sighing, he put down whatever book he was reading and went to let Peter in.

"RAIVIS GUESS WHA- Woah!" Peter exclaimed, nearly falling on his face as the door was suddenly slid open.

"You really shouldn't lean on the glass like that," Raivis told him, frowning worriedly as he closed the door behind him.

"Yeah yeah, whatever, now guess what!" Peter interrupted, ignoring the more sensible boy's advice.

"What?" Raivis asked.

"You're never gonna believe this... There's real super heroes!" Peter shouted excitedly.

"What do you mean?" Raivis asked confusedly.

"It was on the news! There was this big creepy cat thing in the mall that was destroying everything, but then these four girls in costumes with big fancy weapons showed up and stopped it using these super cool super-powered attacks!" Peter explained rapidly, barely stopping for breath.

"Um... Ok," Raivis replied, not exactly sure how to respond.

"It was so cool! We should start a fan club for them!" Peter decided.

"Do they have names?" Raivis asked.

"Hmm... Nope," Peter replied, pondering this. "I mean, they probably do, but I don't know what they are."

"Oh, I see," Raivis said thoughtfully.

"Anyway, we should definitely start a fan club! And maybe someday we can be superheroes like them, too!" Peter exclaimed.

"But I don't want to be a superhero," Raivis admitted. "It sounds dangerous and scary. I'd rather just stay home."

"Aww, come on! That's no fun!" Peter argued. "Pleeeeease?"

"...You're going to make me whether I want to or not, aren't you?" Raivis asked nervously.

"Uh-huh!" Peter replied, nodding.

"Fine," Raivis said reluctantly, sighing.

"Yay!" Peter exclaimed happily. "Now let's go recruit some new members!"

* * *

"Alright! The first meeting of the Mysterious Super Girls Whose Names We Don't Know Fan Club is officially called to order!" Peter announced, banging on the table. "Now I'll take attendance." Clearing his throat, he pretended to straighten a piece of drawing paper.

"Raivis!"

"Here," Raivis mumbled reluctantly.

"Paula!"

"Present," Paula answered, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Max!"

"Hmm?"

"You're supposed to say if you're here or not," Peter told him, giving his friend a look.

"Isn't it obvious?" Max replied, raising an eyebrow and pressing a few buttons on his 3DS.

"Yeah, but you're supposed to say it!" Peter insisted.

"Why?" Max asked.

"Because! That's how meetings work!" Peter exclaimed, getting frustrated. Paula rolled her eyes and reached across the table, putting a check mark next to Max's name on the paper.

"Hey! That's my job!" Peter shouted, grabbing the paper.

"But you weren't doing it right," Paula explained.

"Whatever," Peter said, sticking his tongue out at her. "Hmm… Marcello!"

"Here!" the cheerful man exclaimed, raising his hand.

"Right! That makes everyone!" Peter announced. "Now we can begin the meeting. Let's see... Old business... Uh, well this is the first meeting, so I guess there's no old business," he decided confusedly. "Alright, so new business-"

"Hold on a minute, President," Paula interrupted, raising her hand.

"What is it?" Peter asked.

"I've got some things to say," the copper-haired girl announced, and stood up. "First of all, this isn't a real club room, it's Mr. Marcello's living room," she pointed out. "That's a can of iced tea, not a gavel, we don't have a proper name, I don't even know why we're here, and finally, who the heck is that guy?" she asked awkwardly, pointing to a strange boy with braided hair sitting in the corner with a sketchpad.

"It's art," he mumbled vaguely, before returning to his drawing. Peter shrugged, just as clueless as the others.

"I agree with Paula," Max decided. "Peter is doing a terrible job of running this club. I say we should impeach him and let me take over as club president."

"Now wait a minute! You can't just do that! The meeting's barely started, what makes you think I'm doing a bad job?!" Peter argued.

"'Cuz you are," Max replied matter-of-factly.

"This is getting too stressful for me," Raivis whimpered, trembling slightly.

"Anyone want some pears?" Marcello asked, oblivious to the tension in the room.

"Look, if you'll all be quiet I'll explain everything," Peter announced, banging his iced tea can in an attempt to get his friends' attention.

"Fine, go ahead," Paula decide, sighing. "But it better be good."

"Thank you," Peter said, rolling his eyes. "Ok, so as some of you may know, yesterday there was an incident at the mall involving a large... Er... Monsterycatthing that tried to destroy the food court. It was stopped by a group of mysterious female super heroes, whose names we don't actually know yet. This is a fan club for those brave girls," he explained.

"Do you REALLY expect us to believe that?" Paula asked, raising a thick eyebrow.

"It's real! It was on the news!" Peter insisted.

"Oh yeah, it's right here," Max confirmed, showing them his 3DS. It was open to an internet browser with several different news headlines about the incident.

"They sound pretty cute," Marcello mused. "I wonder if any of them are single?"

"So why do we need a fan club for them, exactly?" Paula wondered.

"Because they're super cool!" Peter exclaimed. "I want to be just like them some day."

"You want to wear frilly little miniskirts?" Raivis asked confusedly.

"N-no!" Peter argued quickly, blushing in embarrassment. "Obviously my outfit would be more manly."

"But you're not a man," Max pointed out.

"That's what the 'some day' part is for," Peter replied, giving Max a "duh" look and rolling his eyes.

"Skirts are art," the strange boy in the corner decided. "Costumes are art. Guys in skirts are art. Heroes are art."

The whole room was silent for a moment, staring at him in confusion.

"...Um... Alright then," Peter said awkwardly, not really sure what else to say. "So uh, anyway, let's get back to the meeting."

"So what exactly are we going to do at these meetings, anyway?" Raivis asked.

"We're going to learn all about the mystery girls, appreciate them, train to be like them, and hopefully get them to notice us!" Peter announced.

"That sounds like fun," Marcello agreed.

"It sounds weird," Paula said, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

"It sounds a little bit dangerous," Raivis mumbled.

"It might be art," the guy in the corner added.

"Well I don't really care as long as we don't have to wear skirts," Max decided.

"Alright, so now that that's done, we need to decide on positions," Peter announced. "Obviously I'm the president. Raivis is the secretary," he continued. "Oh, speaking of that, have you been keeping the minutes?"

"Um... W-well, I tried, but then that guy took my notepad," Raivis admitted, staring at his feet awkwardly. Everyone turned to look at the weird kid in the corner.

"Give Raivis his notepad back," Peter ordered.

"No," the boy replied, holding the notepad close to him. "It's art."

"Hey," Paula said sweetly, "If you give us the notepad, we'll let you be the official artist."

"...Fine," he agreed, handing her the notepad.

"Paula! You don't have the authority to make decisions like that, only the president can appoint people!" Peter argued.

"But I got the notepad back, didn't I?" Paula pointed out. "Besides, this club should be a democracy. You're the president, not a king."

"Fine then, we'll take a vote on it," Peter decided. "All in favor of making that guy official club artist?"

"Aye," everyone replied.

"All opposed?"

"Nay," Max said. The others stared at him in confusion.

"Why don't you want him to be artist? Would you rather do it?" Raivis asked curiously.

"No, I just like saying nay," Max explained, shrugging.

"Then it's settled," Peter announced. "Now... The deputy should be... hmm... Max," he decided.

"Wait a minute!" Paula interrupted. "Why does he get to be deputy?! I'm smarter, and I've known you longer!"

"Because he's cooler," Peter explained.

"And I'm the best one suited to be president," Max added.

"I say I should be deputy," Paula insisted.

"Hmm... Tell you what," Max suggested, "If you can beat me at a Pokemon battle, you can be deputy."

"I accept your challenge," Paula said, offering her hand to shake. Max shook it.

"May the best trainer win."

"Oh, hold on," Paula said suddenly, "I left my Gameboy at home."

Max's eyes widened in horror. "Did... did you say... Gameboy..?" he whispered, clutching his 3DS.

"Yeah, why?" Paula asked, confused.

"DON'T TALK TO ME, YOU FILTHY CASUAL!" Max screamed, running out of the room. Everyone was silent, shocked.

"...Since that weirdo ran away, does that mean I get to be deputy?" Paula asked Peter.

"I guess so," he replied, shrugging.

"What do I get to be?" Marcello asked, leaning against the table casually.

"You can be our responsible adult supervisor," Peter replied, nodding seriously.

"Are you sure he counts as 'responsible'?" Raivis asked.

"More or less," Marcello replied, shrugging.

"I guess we ought to give stupidface a position too," Paula admitted.

"How about treasurer? We don't have one of those yet," Raivis suggested.

"Ooh, good idea!" Peter agreed. "HEY MAX, YOU GET TO BE TREASURER!" he shouted down the hall.

"LEAVE ME ALONE! I'M TRYING TO SPEND QUALITY TIME WITH MY MEOWSTIC!" Max shouted back.

"What's a Meowstic?" Paula asked.

"It's one of the new Pokemon, I think," Peter replied.

"Games are art," the kid in the corner mumbled.

"What about text adventures? Those don't have any art," Raivis pointed out.

"They are art," the boy insisted. "Everything is art."

"Is my toe jamb art?" Paula asked, waving her shoeless foot in his face.

"No," he replied hastily, moving away from her.

"Thought not," she replied, smirking.


End file.
